Nobel Prize controversies works there were available only in samizdat-published, clandestine form. After the Swedish government refused to hold a public award ceremony and lecture at its Moscow embassy, Solzhenitsyn refused the award altogether, commenting that the conditions set by the Swedes (who preferred a private ceremony) were "an insult to the Nobel Prize itself." Solzhenitsyn later accepted the award on 10 December 1974, after the Soviet Union banished him. Critics suggest that Solzhenitsyn was awarded the prize because of his political stance, not his writing. Leo Tolstoy was nominated for the two first-ever Nobel Prizes in Literature. In the first year, the
New Academy Prize in Literature "concentrate on writing, away from media attention." The New Academy Prize in Literature was awarded to Maryse Condé. New Academy Prize in Literature The New Academy Prize in Literature was established in 2018 in lieu of the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was not awarded in 2018. The winner was announced on 12 October 2018. The New Academy will be dissolved in December 2018. Following an open invitation to the world, calling for public votes for 47 candidates nominated by Swedish librarians, the New Academy announced that the four finalists for the prize were Maryse Condé, Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami,