Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, securing the world’s most prestigious literary honour. The Swedish Academy announced the decision on Thursday, awarding Anne 12 million Swedish kronor for an illustrious career that boldly reimagines ancient mythology for the modern era.
The Academy praised her "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature". Shortly before the announcement, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Ingrid Carlberg, reached Anne by phone. "She had time to tell me was that she is, for the moment, in Iceland, where she is listening to the wind," Ingrid revealed. "She was taken by surprise but very happy. I could hear that in her voice."
Born in Toronto in 1950, Anne has spent over three decades teaching classics while crafting works that defy easy classification. From her 1986 critical debut Eros the Bittersweet to her celebrated verse novel Autobiography of Red, her writing seamlessly bridges ancient texts, personal grief and modern romance. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel committee, commended how Anne has "broken away from lyrical poetry bound to the narrative self and inspired new forms of contemporary literature".
Anne views verse through an artistic lens, having once reflected: "I think of making a poem as making an object. I have always thought of them more as drawings than as texts, but drawings that are also physically enterable through the fact of language." The late essayist Susan Sontag admired her singular vision, noting: "She is one of the few writers writing in English that I would read anything she wrote." Anne will formally receive her medal in Stockholm this December.
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