Engdahl quits as Nobel literature academy head

Horace Engdahl will step down in June as permanent secretary of the academy that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Engdahl, a Swedish journalist and historian who turns 60 in June, told the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet's website, that after 10 years in the position he will leave next June 1.

He added that he made his decision last May. He announced it Saturday at the Swedish Academy's final board meeting of the year.

He will be replaced by Peter Englund, an author and historian and the academy's youngest member at age 51,

In September, Engdahl provoked controversy when he said it was no coincidence that most winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature are European.

"You can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the centre of the literary world ... not the United States," he told the Associated Press.

He said U.S. writers are "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture," reducing their universal appeal.

His comments were rejected by literary authorities in North America, and the head of the U.S. National Book Foundation offered to send him a reading list.

Engdahl will stay on as one of the academy's 18 board members.