Bob Dylan finally accepts Nobel Prize, months after ceremony

  • Published
A mural of songwriter Bob Dylan by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra is on display in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 15, 2016. On October 13, 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
A new mural of Dylan in Minnesota, his home state, appeared soon after the announcement

Bob Dylan has accepted his Nobel Prize for literature, more than three months after the awards ceremony, Swedish media report.

He received his medal at a private event in Stockholm before a scheduled concert in the city.

No further details were given.

Swedish Academy officials previously said Dylan would not deliver his Nobel lecture, a traditional condition of receiving the 8m krona ($900,000, £727,000) prize money, at the event.

He is expected to deliver a taped version of the lecture later.

If he does not deliver a lecture by June, he will have to forfeit the prize money.

A member of the Swedish Academy, which awards the prize, told the Associated Press news agency "it went very well indeed", and that 75-year-old Dylan was "a very nice, kind man".

Media caption,

How Bob Dylan might be feeling as he accepts his Nobel Prize - imagined by musician Mitch Benn

In an earlier blog post, the academy's secretary said the setting would be "small and intimate". No media were present at Dylan's request.

After receiving the prize, Dylan performed a concert on Saturday evening at the Stockholm Waterfront venue. A second concert is planned for Sunday evening.

The Nobel Prize for literature has usually been associated with poets and novelists.

But the academy handed Dylan the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

Dylan failed to attend the December ceremony, citing previous commitments. In a speech read on his behalf, he said it was "truly beyond words" and he thought his odds of winning were as likely "standing on the moon".

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.