STOCKHOLM (AP) — Nobel week took place in Stockholm and Oslo, where laureates held press conferences and lectures before receiving the prestigious prizes.
Hungarian Laszlo Krasznahorkai, who won a literature prize for his surreal and anarchic novels that combine a dark worldview with caustic humor, was due to give a lecture in Stockholm on Sunday in one of his rare public appearances.
When the Nobel judges announced the award in October, they described the 71-year-old writer as a “great epic writer” whose work is “characterized by absurdism and grotesque excess.”
“Krasnagorkai’s work can be seen as part of the Central European tradition,” the Nobel Prize-winning organization said. “Pessimism and apocalypse are important features, but also humor and unpredictability.”
Last year's winner was South Korean writer Han Kang. The 2023 winner is Norwegian writer Jon Foss, whose work includes a seven-book, one-sentence epic.
Meanwhile, Norwegian Nobel Institute director Christian Harpviken said on Saturday that Venezuelan peace prize winner and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado would travel to Oslo this week to receive her award in person.
The 58-year-old, who won the fight for a democratic transition in the South American country, has been in hiding and has not been seen in public since January.
Harpviken told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that Machado was expected to receive the prize in person on Wednesday.
“I spoke to the Peace Prize laureate last night and she will come to Oslo,” Harpviken said, according to NRK.
The Nobel Prize ceremony takes place on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. The Peace Prize ceremony takes place in Oslo, and the remaining ceremonies take place in Stockholm.
