Nobel Literature Prize in crisis as head resigns amid sexual assault dispute

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From The Times of Israel:

The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, was plunged into crisis on Thursday after two of its members, including its head Sara Danius, resigned Thursday, amid a growing crisis over links to a high-profile man accused of sexual assaults.

“It is the Academy’s wish that I leave my post as permanent secretary,” Danius said after an emergency meeting of academy members in Stockholm.

“I would have liked to have continued, but there are other things to do in life,” she told reporters.

. . . .

The resignations come after the daily Dagens Nyheter in November published statements from 18 women, alleging they had been subject to harassment and physical abuse by the accused man.

The academy has since severed all ties with him and cut grants made to him.

. . . .

The head of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten, has publicly expressed concern about what he termed a “serious and difficult situation.”

Three academics resigned last week in protest after the institution had expressed renewed confidence in Katarina Frostenson, who finally announced her resignation on Thursday.

. . . .

He believes that Sara Danius, who succeeded him in 2015, is the target of “unwarranted” internal criticism. Another member, Horace Engdahl, said that the Academy had confirmed that there was “a problem of leadership.”

“A radical gesture was needed to create the conditions for a new beginning,” he told Swedish public television, SVT.

A professor of literature at Stockholm University, Danius was the first woman to hold the position.

Link to the rest at The Times of Israel and thanks to Anna for the tip.