Head of Swedish Academy resigns

The head of the Swedish Academy, which each year awards the prestigious Nobel Literature Prize will step down in June after 10 years in the post, he announced at the body's annual year-end gathering.
Horace Engdahl, 59, an author and literature critic, will be replaced by Peter Englund, a writer and historian who was elected to the Academy in 2002.
"In line with a decision taken back in May by the Academy, which with admirable restraint has kept it secret until today, I will be leaving my position of my own will on June 1, 2009, exactly 10 years after I took over from Mr. (Sture) Allen," Engdahl announced late Saturday.

"My replacement will be Mr. Englund," he added.
Englund, aged 51, is the Academy's youngest member.
The Academy, founded in 1786 in defence of "genius and good taste" and modelled on the Academie Francaise, has 18 members, often referred to in Sweden as "The Eighteen."
Elected by their peers as members for life, they are only replaced after their death.
They act as guarantors of the Swedish language are drawn from the ranks of writers, poets and professors.
The body's most prestigious task is selecting each year the winner of the Nobel Literature Prize, a task bestowed upon it by the founder of the prizes, Alfred Nobel, in his will in 1896.
This year the prize went to French author Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio for his work drawn from his vast world travels.
The head of the Swedish Academy is appointed for life, and the position officially holds the title of "permanent secretary," though the holder may choose to step down, as in the case of Engdahl.
Engdahl, who will stay on as a member of the Academy, said in an interview with Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet that he wanted more time to write and "sit in cafes" in Berlin where his wife is a guest professor of literature.
Englund meanwhile said his appointment was "not enviable for a writer."
"It's a compulsory service, and nothing to be delighted about."