The 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature will not be awarded this year after the Swedish Academy, the body that selects the winner, was engulfed in a sex abuse scandal.
The academy said it now plans to award the prize in 2019.
The postponement came after Jean-Claude Arnault, a French photographer and leading cultural figure in Sweden who is married to poet and former academy member Katarina Frostenson, was accused of sexual assault, including rape, by 18 women after the #MeToo campaign gained traction worldwide. He was also accused of groping Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria at an academy event in 2006. Arnault denies the allegations.
Frostenson and five other academy members have stepped down over the crisis.
An independent investigation found that the academy also contravened its conflict of interest rules by providing financial support to Kulturplats Forum, a center run by Arnault and Frostenson.
"The crisis in the Swedish Academy has adversely affected the Nobel Prize. Their decision underscores the seriousness of the situation and will help safeguard the long-term reputation of the Nobel Prize," said Carl-Henrik Heldin, the chairman of the Nobel Foundation's board, in a statement.
"None of this impacts the awarding of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in other prize categories," he added.
It is the first time since 1943 that the award will not be handed out.
