Writing on the Wall

Nobel Literature Prize Canceled After Sex-Assault Scandal

No award for 2018 after organizers quit amid multiple assault allegations.

The Nobel Prize for Literature won’t be awarded this year after the organization that decides it has been rocked by a sexual-assault scandal. The Swedish Academy’s chief and five members have quit over its handling of allegations against a member’s husband. It will be the first time since World War II that the prize won’t be awarded, and the only peacetime year in which it' hasn’t been awarded since 1935, when judges deemed there was no worthy winner of the prize. The allegations surround French photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, husband of academy member Katarina Frostenson, who was accused by 18 women of sexual assault. Two prizes for literature will be announced in 2019.