Nobel Prizes awarded in pandemic-curtailed local ceremonies

Winners of the 2021 Nobel Prizes are receiving their awards in scaled-down local ceremonies adapted for pandemic times

LONDON -- Winners of the 2021 Nobel Prizes will start receiving their awards on Monday in scaled-down local ceremonies adapted for pandemic times.

For a second year, the coronavirus has scuttled the traditional formal banquet in Stockholm attended by winners of the prizes in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded separately in Oslo, Norway.

Literature laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah will be the first to get his prize in a lunchtime ceremony Monday at the Swedish ambassador’s residence in London. The U.K.-based Tanzanian author was awarded the Nobel Prize in October for novels that explore the impact of migration on individuals and societies.

Gurnah, who grew up on the island of Zanzibar and arrived in England as an 18-year-old refugee in the 1960s, has drawn on his experiences for 10 novels, including “Memory of Departure,” “Pilgrims Way,” “Afterlives” and “Paradise.” He has said migration is “not just my story — it’s a phenomenon of our times.”