The Swedish Academy scandal grows: Third member opts-out

Georgina Harris

Peter Englund decides to leave The Swedish Academy, he writes in a letter to Aftonbladet.

The decision makes Englund the third member to opt-out, following the two Swedish authors Klas Östergren and Kjell Espmark.

– Decisions have been made that I neither believe in nor know how to defend, he writes.

Now a third member, Peter Englund, decides to opt-out, he writes in a letter to Aftonbladet.

”Decisions have been made that I neither believe in nor know how to defend, and I therefore have made the decision to no longer participate in the work of The Swedish Academy”, the former permanent secretary, author and historian writes.

”I’m out of the game”

Klas Östergren was the first one to deem the Academy’s problems as too grave.

”I’m leaving the table, I’m out of the game”, he writes in a message to the daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

Klas Östergren rules out The Academy’s way of handling its latest problems and calls it a ”betrayal against its founders”.

Shortly after Östergrens announcement to leave – the author Kjell Espmark followed his lead.

”When prominent voices within the Academy choose to put friendship and other irrelevant regards before the responsibility for its integrity - then I can no longer proceed with the work”, he writes in a message to the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Prior to scandal following #metoo

The three authors dropping out happen subsequent to a scandal around The Swedish Academy and its ties to a former artistic director accused of sexual assault.

To judge from Englunds, Östergrens and Espmarks verdicts, it seems as if a growing crack within The Academy is what lies behind the latest outplay.

The Swedish Academy is the institution which every year assigns the Nobel Prize laureate in literature.