Mario Vargas Llosa on Dylan’s Nobel: The prize is for writers, not singers

Acclaimed Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa on Thursday said that the Nobel Prize for Literature should not have gone to Bob Dylan.

"I am an admirer of Bob Dylan as a singer, but I don't think he is a good writer," Llosa told the press on Thursday. "The Nobel Prize for Literature is for writers, not singers."

On October 13, the Nobel committee announced that Dylan was this year's recipient of the Literature prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

The announcement created an international debate on whether songwriters should be in the running for the prestigious award. Dylan himself created a flurry, including among the Nobel committee, by not making any public comment about the honor.

Last Tuesday, however, the Nobel Foundation announced that Dylan has indicated he will accept the prize.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Telegraph, Dylan said that his becoming a Nobel laureate is "hard to believe", and that he "absolutely" would attend the awards ceremony in Stockholm on December 10 "if it's at all possible."

Vargas Llosa received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 for "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat."

He spoke with members of the Philippine press during his second visit to the country, hosted by Instituto Cervantes Manila.

Llosa will be holding lectures at the University of Santo Tomas and De La Salle University. The latter will also confer Llosa with an honorary degree. — BM, GMA News