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Murakami withdraws from alternative Nobel Prize

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has asked to be withdrawn from Sweden’s New Academy prize in literature, reports Reuters.

In a post on its Facebook page, the New Academy said that Murakami wrote in an email that he was grateful for being nominated but that ‘his preference is to concentrate on his writing, away from media attention’. The Academy says it ‘regrets but respects his decision’.

The organisers added, ‘The three remaining candidates have all expressed enthusiasm for their nomination for the prize.’

The New Academy prize was established after the cancellation of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature due to a sexual misconduct scandal. Murakami and the three other finalists for the new prize were announced in late August.

The Swedish Academy says it will return the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019, when it will award two laureates.

The winner of the New Academy prize in literature will be announced on 12 October in Stockholm.

 

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Category: International news