section_path: Criticism/Controversies about Swedish Academy board members
section_name: Controversies about Swedish Academy board members
paragraph_text: Controversies about Swedish Academy board members
  
  Membership in the 18-member academy, who select the recipients, is technically for life. Until 2018, members were not allowed to leave, although they might refuse to participate. For members who did not participate, their board seat was left vacant until they died. Twelve active/participating members are required for a quorum.
  
  In 1989, three members, including the former permanent secretary Lars Gyllensten, resigned in protest after the academy refused to denounce Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. A fourth member, Knut Ahnlund, decided to remain in the academy but later refused to participate in their work and resigned on 11 October 2005, just a few days before the announcement of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature in protest against the prize being awarded to Elfriede Jelinek. According to Ahnlund, the decision to award Jelinek ruined the worth of the Nobel Prize in Literature for a long time. He characterized Jelinek's work as chaotic and pornographic.