Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ The Swedish Academy won’t have to hang on to the Nobel Prize intended for an elusive winner for much longer.
Bob Dylan, who was awarded the prize in literature last year, dodged phone calls from the academy for days before finally acknowledging the honor and eventually sending his regrets for not attending the official ceremony Dec. 10.
He cited “pre-existing commitments” to explain his absence. But now the 75-year-old singer/songwriter plans to make a swing through Stockholm for some shows, so the academy will go to him. “The Swedish Academy is very much looking forward to the weekend and will show up at one of the performances,” the organization said in a statement Wednesday. “The good news is that the Swedish Academy and Bob Dylan have decided to meet this weekend. The academy will then hand over Dylan’s Nobel diploma and the Nobel medal, and congratulate him on the Nobel Prize in Literature.” The gathering “will be small and intimate, and no media will be present; only Bob Dylan and members of the academy will attend, all according to Dylan’s wishes.” Laureates also receive nearly $1 million, so long as they deliver a lecture on literature within six months. Sara Danius, the academy’s permanent secretary, said in a blog post that Dylan will not give his Nobel lecture during the weekend but that a recorded version would be sent at a later date. She noted that taped Nobel lectures are occasionally presented, most recently in 2013 by Canadian Nobel literature laureate Alice Munro. Dylan was awarded the prize “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
■ In a rare public appearance, first lady Melania Trump took part in a ceremony Wednesday to give the State Department’s International Women of Courage Award to 13 recipients who are political and social activists in their countries. The Women of Courage Awards were established in 2007 by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They recognize women who have shown courage and leadership advocating for women’s rights and advancement. The recipients include the deputy director of a group in Iraq that helps shelter women fleeing domestic violence; a woman who tries to prevent children in Yemen from being radicalized; a nun who runs a nursery school in Damascus; and a Colombian who after being attacked by a stalker with sulfuric acid lobbied to penalize such assailants. Other honorees were from Bangladesh, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, New Guinea, Peru, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Vietnam. “Their stories of individual bravery remind us that there is always hope whenever the human spirit is brought to bear in the service of others,” Melania Trump said, “and that healing and personal empowerment are often born from such deeds.”