STOCKHOLM — Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, the Swedish Academy announced, honoring a writer celebrated for work that crosses the lines between poetry, fiction, scholarship and translation.
The academy cited Carson “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature,” according to the official press release. Ingrid Carlberg, the academy’s permanent secretary, said she reached Carson by phone in Iceland shortly before the announcement. “She was taken by surprise but very happy. I could hear that in her voice,” Carlberg said, BBC News reported.
Born in Toronto in 1950, Carson, 76, has taught classics for more than 30 years, and much of her writing draws on ancient Greek literature and myth. Her best-known book, Autobiography of Red (1998), is a novel in verse that reimagines the myth of Geryon, the red-winged monster killed by Herakles, as the story of a modern teenage boy, The Guardian said. Her first book, Eros the Bittersweet, appeared in 1986. In 2001 she became the first woman to win the T.S. Eliot Prize, for The Beauty of the Husband. Other works include The Glass Essay, Nox, Float and translations of Sappho and Sophocles.
Anders Olsson, chair of the academy’s Nobel committee for literature, said Carson had “broken away from lyrical poetry bound to the narrative self and inspired new forms of contemporary literature.” She lives in Michigan and has held Icelandic citizenship since 2022, the BBC said. DW noted she is only the 19th woman among the prize’s laureates. The award carries 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday.
Sources: NobelPrize.org, BBC News, The Guardian, DW
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