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Bob Dylan writes speech for Nobel Prize ceremony

US rock legend Patti Smith will come to Stockholm to perform one of Bob Dylan's songs on Saturday in the literature laureate's stead, the Nobel Prize Foundation said on Monday.

Bob Dylan writes speech for Nobel Prize ceremony
Bob Dylan. Photo: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Smith will perform a version of Dylan's 'A hard rain's a-gonna fall' at the Nobel award ceremony in Stockholm, arranged for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra by Swedish conductor Hans Ek.

Dylan has also prepared a speech for the occasion, which is to be delivered by literature historian Horace Engdahl, a member and former permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, reported Swedish media.


Patti Smith performing in Stockholm last summer. Photo: Erik Nylander/TT

The Swedish Academy, which picks the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, confirmed last month that Dylan would skip the award ceremony due to prior commitments.

The artist, whose lyrics have influenced generations of fans, is the first songwriter to win the literature prize, although experts bet on writers such as Salman Rushdie, Adonis or Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

Nobel laureates are honoured every year on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of prize's founder Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist, inventor and philanthropist.

Several other literature prize winners have skipped the Nobel ceremony in the past for various reasons: Doris Lessing on grounds of ill health, Harold Pinter because he was hospitalized and Elfriede Jelinek due to social phobia.

The value of the prestigious award this year amounts to 8 million kronor ($870,000).

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