Bob Dylan to Nobel Prize Committee: I'm Too Busy to Pick Up My Award

MALIBU, CA — Malibu resident and iconoclast Bob Dylan won't be heading to Stockholm to accept his 2016 Nobel Prize for literature, citing "other commitments," the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Permanent Secretary Sara Danius of the Swedish Academy, the organization that hands out the Nobel Prize each year, told Swedish news agency TT that Dylan sent a personal letter stating that "he wishes he could receive the prize personally, but other commitments make it unfortunately impossible."

Dylan "underlined that he feels extremely honored by the Nobel Prize," she said.

When the prize was announced last month, Dylan was initially silent and did not acknowledge the award until an interview with The Telegraph two weeks later. In the interview, the singer said he was "speechless" at the news.

"Amazing, incredible," he said. "Whoever dreams about something like that?"

At the time, the singer-songwriter said he would attend the ceremony on Dec. 10.

Dylan was awarded the prize for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition," the Academy said in its announcement on Oct. 13. The award comes with 8 million Swedish Kronor, which is roughly $930,000.

The Academy said it respects Dylan's decision, adding that not showing up to accept the award was "unusual" but not unprecedented.

In 2004, Austrian playwright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek skipped the award ceremony because of a social phobia.

"The award is still theirs, as it now belongs to Bob Dylan," the Academy said. "We are looking forward to Bob Dylan's Nobel lecture, which he must hold, according to the requirements, within six months" of the award ceremony.

Dylan, 75, who has been called the voice of a generation and the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll for his influential songs from the 1960s onward, is the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in more than 20 years. The last American to win the prize was novelist Toni Morrison, who won in 1993.

Image credit: Alberto Cabello from Vitoria Gasteiz via Wikimedia Commons