The Swedish Nobel Academy says it has given up trying to reach Bob Dylan, just days after it awarded the veteran singer-songwriter the Nobel Prize for Literature.
"Right now we are doing nothing. I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly enough," the academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, told Swedish state radio SR on Monday.
So far the American star has responded with nothing more than the sound of silence since he won the prize on Thursday. He performed a concert in Las Vegas that very night, but made no mention of the accolade.
Every December 10, Nobel prize winners are invited to Stockholm to receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf and to give a speech during a banquet. Obviously, the Swedish Academy doesn't know if Dylan plans to attend.
"I am not at all worried," Danius insisted. "I think he will show up." But what if he does give it a miss? "If he doesn't want to come, he won't come. It will be a big party in any case and the honour belongs to him," she said.
Profile: Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan
Former folkie Dylan (75), whose lyrics are treated with enormous reverence by his fans, is the first songwriter to win the literature prize.
The Nobel Academy said he was given the honour, which is worth €822,500, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
