The Nobel Prize announcements for this year in the memory of Alfred Nobel begins on October 1 with the prize for physiology or medicine. With an abridged 2018 season, the Nobel Assembly has released the full schedule, without a Literature Prize for the first time in 70 years. The Swedish Academy which has awarded the prestigious literary distinction since the Nobel holders were first awarded in 1901, has been torn apart. Along with the prize announcement dates, know the reason why the Academy has decided to postpone this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature and decided to award two laureates in 2019. VS Naipaul, Nobel Prize Laureate For Literature, Dies at 85. 

All the announcements will be broadcast live on their official handle; Nobelprize.org. The prize-awarding institutions will announce their 2018 decisions on the following dates:

  • The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will be announced on Monday, October 1 at the Nobel Assembly in Karolinska Institute, Solna.

  • The Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced on Tuesday, October 2 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Solna.

  • The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday, October 3 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Solna.

  • The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, October 5 at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo.

  • The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced on Monday, October 8 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Solna.

Nobel Prize in Literature to Be Awarded in 2019?

The 232-year-old panel of writers and scholars has taken the extraordinary step of postponing this year’s award in Literature until next year, when it will name two winners. A wide-ranging scandal which centres 71-year-old photographer, Jean Claude Arnault, with close ties the academy for over three decades is accused of using his influence to force women into having sex. Powerful associates are said to have covered for him, playing down his misconduct ignoring emboldened victims, who have come forward with accounts of his misbehaviour. All these elements, now familiar in the #MeToo era, the Nobel Foundation, which manages Alfred Nobel’s legacy and oversees all of the awards, stepped in to warn that the scandal risked ruining the prizes as a whole. Nobel Prize 2018 Controversies: US President Donald Trump Nominated for Peace, Prize for Literature Postponed. 

Working on its decision, the academy said that it would focus on rebuilding public trust and restoring its reputation, will not declare the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. Other Nobel Prizes will not be affected. The prize committees are at present working carefully to select the recipients of 2018 Nobel Prize, who in keeping with the vision of Alfred Nobel have conferred the most significant benefit to humankind.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 29, 2018 05:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).