Report: Bob Dylan Not Showing To Pick Up Nobel Prize

Dylan Receives Presidential Medal of Honor courtesy Shutterstock

BOB DYLAN will not travel to STOCKHOLM to pick up his 2016 NOBEL PRIZE for literature next month.  

The SWEDISH ACADEMY says it received a personal letter from DYLAN saying he had "pre-existing commitments." 

DYLAN recently told writer EDNA GUNDERSEN that indeed he was honored by the award, but the enigmatic singer-singwriter will not show up in person to acknowledge the PRIZE. He told the ACADEMY the announcement of his winning left him "speechless."

The SWEDISH ACADEMY issued a statement that it looks forward to DYLAN's required NOBEL lecture sometime in the next six months. 

The NOBEL committee announced on OCTOBER 13th that DYLAN was this year's recipient, saying he "has the status of an icon" and that "his influence on contemporary music is profound, and he is the object of a steady stream of secondary literature" (NET NEWS, 10/13).

DYLAN took his time responding to the announcement, which prompted the COMMITTEE to call him "impolite and arrogant." 

After receiving DYLAN's acceptance letter, the SWEDISH ACADEMY issued a statement: "That laureates decide not to come is unusual, to be sure, but not exceptional. In the recent past, several laureates have, for various reasons, been unable to come to STOCKHOLM to receive the prize, among them DORIS LESSING, HAROLD PINTER and ELFRIEDE JELINEK. The prize still belongs to them, just as it belongs to BOB DYLAN."

STING, HALSEY and HIGHASAKITE will try to make up for DYLAN's absence with musical performances, while CONAN O'BRIEN will host. 

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