COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Three members who quit the prestigious body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature amid a scandal and internal feud are returning to the Swedish Academy, saying differences with a member are of less importance than the academy itself, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Svenska Dagbladet daily says former Academy permanent secretary Sara Danius, Kjell Espmark and Peter Englund will rejoin the secretive 18-member body. They were among seven Academy members who stepped down as a sex-abuse and financial crimes scandal engulfed the body. In May the academy announced that no prize will be awarded this year.

Espmark told the daily “we are ready to help out” with electing new board members, but did not elaborate.

In June, Swedish prosecutors charged the man at the center of the scandal with two counts of rape of a woman in 2011. Jean-Claude Arnault, a Swedish cultural figure and husband of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, has denied the allegations. Frostenson quit in April, at the same time as Danius.

The trio had said they would be willing to return if fellow member Horace Engdahl, a suppoerter of Arnault who had labelled them a “clique of sore losers,” left the body.

Espmark was quoted as saying that they had reversed their stance because “we have to ask ourselves the question: what is most important, the well-being of the Academy or the personal issue?”

He told Swedish news agency TT that “our loyalty lies with the Academy.”

Many in the Scandinavian nation, known for promoting gender equality, have expressed dismay over the scandal, which has exposed bitter divisions within the academy and given rise to accusations of patriarchal leanings among some members.

A protest that grew out of what began as Sweden’s own #MeToo moment in November hit the academy when 18 women came forward in a Swedish newspaper with accusations against Arnault.

In April, the Swedish Academy said an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations found that “unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy” has taken place within the ranks of the prestigious institution.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Three members of the Swedish Academy, the body that selects the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, have withdrawn from its board in protest over the handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by a man married to another member.

Academy members and authors Peter Englund, Klas Ostergren and Kjell Espmark all said separately they would no longer participate in its work. Since seats are for life it, is not technically possible to resign.

The Swedish Academy in November severed ties with a man whom it had helped financially in running a cultural club in Stockholm after allegations of sexual misconduct on his part.

At a time of global concern over the treatment of women spearheaded by the #MeToo movement, state prosecutors opened a premliminary investigation into the incidents, but later dropped parts of it without charges being laid.

Lawyer Bjorn Hurtig, who represents the man, told Reuters his client denied all allegations.

The Swedish Academy has yet to make public the results of its own internal investigation. But Englund said in a blog on Friday that a rift had grown in the body over the probe and the measures taken by the Academy’s permanent secretary in the case.

He said that its assessments showed “too much regard for the individual, and too little for the statutes”.

“Decisions have been taken that I neither believe in nor can defend, and I have therefore decided to no longer participate in the work of the Swedish Academy,” he said.

Espmark told Reuters he backed Englund’s opinions on the matter. Ostergren did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment but said in a letter to newspaper Svenska Dagbladet he believed the Academy was failing to live up to its own code.

The manager of the Swedish Academy’s office said that only Sara Danius, the permanent secretary, could comment on the case. Danius did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment but an auto-reply said she was currently on leave.

But in comments to daily Svenska Dagbladet, she said the Academy had decided to look into whether it could be made possible for members to formally resign while also saying she was saddened be the exit of her colleagues.

“It is very sad. But I understand their reasoning,” she was quoted as saying. </s> Three prominent members of the Swedish Academy resigned on Friday in protest at close ties between the institution, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, and a high-profile man accused of sexual assault.

The Academy has been reeling since it was revealed as part of the #MeToo campaign in November that several members, as well as members' wives and daughters, had allegedly been assaulted by the well-known figure at the center of the scandal.

Sweden's Dagens Nyheter newspaper broke the news, publishing the testimony of 18 women claiming to have been assaulted or raped by one of the most influential figures in Stockholm's cultural scene.

The Academy has since cut all ties with the man, who has not been publicly identified.

But his identity is generally known by the public as he is a high-profile person in cultural circles.

The alleged sexual assaults occurred between 1996 and 2017, according to Dagens Nyheter.

One of the resigning members Peter Englund said the scandal had deeply divided the Swedish literary world.

"Over time, a crack that appeared has continued to grow," he said in a letter to the Aftonbladet newspaper, adding that the Academy's permanent secretary Sara Danius had been subject to "unjustified" criticism.

The fallout continued Friday as King Carl XVI Gustaf was informed of developments as the director general of the Nobel Foundation Lars Heikensten expressed concern over a "serious and difficult situation".

Along with Englund, members Klas Ostergren and Kjell Espmark decided to step down after the group's normal meeting on Thursday at a Stockholm restaurant.

"It is with great sadness that after 36 years working at the Academy, including 17 as chairman of the Nobel Committee, I feel forced to make this decision," Espmark said in a letter to the media.

"When prominent academy members put friendship ahead of responsibility and integrity, I can no longer participate in its work".

Ostergren condemned "a betrayal of the founder and his great protector", referring to the Academy's founder, Swedish King Gustav III, and inventor Alfred Nobel, who left some of his fortune to the institution.

The three men are lifetime members and cannot technically resign, but there is nothing forcing them to attend meetings.

Of the academy's 18 members, five are no longer active after two women, Kerstin Ekman and Lotta Lotass, went on leave for several years.

Bjorn Wiman, the culture editor of Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, said the resignations are "a disaster" for an academy "in ruins".

His counterpart at the Aftonbladet newspaper, Asa Linderborg, said "the tower of Babel is crumbling".

The allegations against the man were first revealed as part of the #MeToo campaign exposing sexual misconduct, which began in Hollywood and went on to shake artistic, media and political circles in Sweden, one of the most gender equal countries in the world.

In March, Stockholm's public prosecutor's office announced that part of the investigation, into claims of alleged rapes and assaults between 2013 and 2015, had been called off as the statute of limitation had passed or due to lack of evidence. </s> The Swedish Academy said on Friday they have decided not to award the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, following a sexual abuse scandal last year that implicated a member and her husband.

In November last year, newspaper Dagens Nyheter had published anonymous accounts by 18 women, who accused artist Jean-Claude Arnault - husband of a member, Katarina Frostenson, who ran a literary club associated with the Academy - sexual assault and harassment. </s> STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The Swedish Academy named two new members on Friday as part of efforts to rebuild the scandal-hit institution and ensure it can return to its function of selecting the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For the first time in decades, this year's line-up of Nobel prizes does not feature a literature award after a rape scandal saw a string of members resign or withdraw from the Academy's work in protest, leaving it unable to decide on a winner.

The Academy said in a statement it had appointed Eric Runesson, a Swedish supreme court judge, and Iranian-born novelist and poet Jila Mossaed as new members.

There had been calls for the resignation of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, who is married to the man at the centre of the scandal, but the issue was not mentioned in the statement.

Her husband Jean-Claude Arnault was sentenced to two years in prison for rape on Monday. He has denied all allegations against him and is appealing the verdict.

The head of the Nobel Foundation told Reuters last week it could drop the Academy from awarding the literature prize if it did not make further changes in the wake of the scandal.

The Academy's handling of the row prompted two of its 18 members to resign and several others to cease taking part in the Academy's work, including Frostenson.

With the headcount falling as low as 10 and statutes demanding at least 12 for important votes, such as for electing new members, some of those who have ceased working at the Academy agreed to take part in the vote to fill vacant seats.

It remains short six working members, though only two of them have formally resigned.

(Reporting by Daniel Dickson; editing by Niklas Pollard)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. </s> COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Two former members of the prestigious body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature who quit in the wake of a sex abuse and financial crimes scandal have dismissed reports they were returning to the Swedish Academy.

Former permanent secretary Sara Danius wrote on her Facebook page Friday that “presently, I have no such plans.” She said a report from Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, “was erroneous.”

Peter Englund, another board member who quit in April, told Sweden’s news agency TT that “currently I have no plans to return to work” at the Swedish Academy.

“However, I wish to play a constructive role in the rebuilding of this institution. This means I possibly will vote in the current election of new members,” he added.

Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden’s largest dailies and traditionally well-informed on the academy and its members, reported Thursday that Danius, Englund and Kjell Espmark will rejoin the secretive 18-member body whose members are appointed for life.

They were among seven board members who stepped down in April after scandal engulfed the body. According to academy statutes, new members can only be elected if there are 12 board members present.

In May, the academy announced that no prize will be awarded this year.

Jean-Claude Arnault, a Swedish cultural figure, was charged in June with two counts of rape of a woman in 2011. The husband of academy member Katarina Frostenson, Arnault has denied the allegations. Frostenson quit in April at the same time as Danius.

Danius, Espmark and Englund earlier had said they would be willing to return if fellow member Horace Engdahl, a supporter of Arnault who had labelled them a “clique of sore losers,” left the body.

Svenska Dagbladet on Thursday quoted Espmark as saying that they had reversed their stance because “we have to ask ourselves the question: what is most important — the well-being of the academy or a personal issue?”

He told the TT news agency that “our loyalty lies with the academy.”

Many in the Scandinavian nation, known for promoting gender equality, have expressed dismay over the scandal, which has exposed bitter divisions within the academy and given rise to accusations of patriarchal leanings among some members.

A protest that grew out of what began as Sweden’s own #MeToo moment in November hit the academy when 18 women came forward in a Swedish newspaper with accusations against Arnault.

In April, the Swedish Academy said an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations found that “unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy” has taken place within the ranks of the prestigious institution.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> On Friday morning, the Swedish Academy announced that the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature will be postponed until 2019, when two awards will be given out. The decision came as the result of "the infighting and public outrage that have engulfed the group over a sexual abuse scandal," according to The New York Times.

Scandal rocked the Swedish Academy in late 2017, when 18 women came forward to accuse Jean-Claude Arnault, who has close ties to the academy and is the husband of member Katarina Frostenson, of sexual assault and harassment. Allegations mounted later that Arnault had assaulted other women, including Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria. After members voted against forcing Frostenson out as part of the academy's endeavor to distance itself from Arnault, several other members left in protest. But the scandal didn't end there. In fact, it reached a fever pitch in April, when the Swedish Academy's first female permanent secretary, Sara Danius, stepped down from her role as the head of the organization because of her dissatisfaction with the academy's handling of the accusations. After the wave of resignations, just 10 active members remained.

All of those departures have left the Swedish Academy in crisis. Members join the academy for life, and empty seats cannot be filled until the death of an inactive holder. Additionally, because current regulations require 12 active members to elect new people, the academy is actually completely unable to fill the empty spots. The situation is so dire that King Carl XVI Gustav has agreed to step in to help maintain the Swedish Academy's functionality. Seriously, the King is coming in to straighten things out.

In the past, the Swedish Academy has postponed prizes when no author met its stringent requirement to "have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction." The last time the award was postponed in such a manner was in 1943. But the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature marks the first time that the Swedish Academy has withheld the honor due to internal conflict. Acting permanent secretary Anders Olsson said in a Friday interview that "confidence in the academy from the world around us has sunk drastically in the past half year... and that is the decisive reason that we are postponing the prize."

Because this year's prize will be postponed, two laureates will receive the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature. Speaking with The Guardian last week, prize committee chair Per Wästberg said that his division of the Swedish Academy was still working as normal to bring the honor to a new literary icon, adding that, "members of the academy will spend summer reading and studying in depth the five candidates on the shortlist, regardless of an announcement this autumn or next."

The next Nobel Prizes in Literature will be awarded to two laureates in October 2019. </s> The Swedish Academy has been rocked by a series of rows over a scandal that emerged last year, when several women accused a man – who is not a household name in Sweden but has strong ties to the Academy and is a well-known figure on Stockholm's cultural scene – of sexual abuse and harassment.

It sparked a crisis on the Academy committee, which decided to cut all ties and funding to the man – who has been referred to as "the culture profile" in Swedish media – with immediate effect.

The Academy said at the time that it had potentially broken its own rules regulating conflict of interest and appointed a legal firm to investigate its committee members' ties to the man in question.

Swedish media report that the investigation is now finished and that Friday's resignations come on the back of a meeting yesterday, when the Academy met to word a press statement to be sent out next week.

Renowned author Klas Östergren stepped down in the afternoon, followed in quick succession by fellow members of the Academy Kjell Espmark and Peter Englund.

Östergren announced his departure in typically striking Academy style by referring both to King Gustaf III, its founder back in 1786, and a quote by singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.

"The Swedish Academy has for a long time had serious problems and has now tried to solve them in a way that puts obscure considerations before its own statutes, which is a betrayal of its founder and patron, and not least its mission to represent genius and taste. Therefore, I have chosen to no longer take part in its activities. 'I'm leaving the table, I'm out of the game'," Östergren told Svenska Dagbladet, with the last line in English.

The Swedish Academy, which has awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901, has 18 permanent members. Membership is for life and a person who quits is traditionally not replaced until their death. Two more members have previously resigned, for other reasons not related to the recent crisis.

Permanent Secretary Sara Danius told Svenska Dagbladet that the Academy was now looking at revising the rules, making it possible for a member to leave and be replaced by another person. She said she was saddened by the trio's decision, but added that she understood their reasoning.

Danius added that she herself had thought about quitting.

"That's what you do in these situations, you consider various options. But I feel that our mission is so important that it is greater than our differences of opinion. I have come to the decision that I will keep going as long as I can, but I will work for what's right," she told the newspaper.

Few other details were released on Friday, but that did not stop the rest of the Swedish world of literature and culture from commenting.

"It's like the whole Tower of Babel is collapsing, it's very interesting," Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet's culture editor Åsa Linderborg described the situation.

Dagens Nyheter's culture editor Björn Wiman described it as a "catastrophe".

"It is difficult to see how the Academy will be able to move on after this. It is a bomb dropped right onto the Stock Exchange Building," he wrote, referring to the building housing the Academy. "The institution is in ruins."

The allegations against the man were first revealed as part of the #MeToo campaign exposing sexual misconduct, which began in Hollywood and went on to shake artistic, media and political circles in Sweden, one of the most gender equal countries in the world.

In March, Stockholm's public prosecutor's office announced that part of the investigation, into claims of alleged rapes and assaults between 2013 and 2015, had been called off as the statute of limitation had passed or due to lack of evidence. </s> The following content is sourced from external partners. We cannot guarantee that it is suitable for the visually or hearing impaired.

This content was published on October 5, 2018 2:24 PM

Swedish lawyer Eric M. Runesson has been elected as a new member of the Swedish Academy, in Stockholm, Sweden, October 5, 2018. Janerik Henriksson/TT News Agency/via REUTERS

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Swedish Academy named two new members on Friday as part of efforts to rebuild the scandal-hit institution and ensure it can return to its function of selecting the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For the first time in decades, this year's line-up of Nobel prizes does not feature a literature award after a rape scandal saw a string of members resign or withdraw from the Academy's work in protest, leaving it unable to decide on a winner.

The Academy said in a statement it had appointed Eric Runesson, a Swedish supreme court judge, and Iranian-born novelist and poet Jila Mossaed as new members.

There had been calls for the resignation of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, who is married to the man at the centre of the scandal, but the issue was not mentioned in the statement.

Her husband Jean-Claude Arnault was sentenced to two years in prison for rape on Monday. He has denied all allegations against him and is appealing the verdict. [nL8N1WH2IO]

The head of the Nobel Foundation told Reuters last week it could drop the Academy from awarding the literature prize if it did not make further changes in the wake of the scandal. [nL4N1WE56B]

The Academy's handling of the row prompted two of its 18 members to resign and several others to cease taking part in the Academy's work, including Frostenson.

With the headcount falling as low as 10 and statutes demanding at least 12 for important votes, such as for electing new members, some of those who have ceased working at the Academy agreed to take part in the vote to fill vacant seats.

It remains short six working members, though only two of them have formally resigned.
Three members of the Swedish Academy leave their seats after failing to oust another member whose husband is accused of sexual misconduct including raping young female writers.