Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature,” the award-giving body said on Thursday.
The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million).
“She was very taken by surprise. We didn’t have so much time to speak, and all she had time to tell me was that she is for the moment in Iceland, where she’s listening to the wind,” said Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.
Carson’s work often blends verse, prose, dialogue and translation in a genre-defying mix. Born in Toronto, she has also held Icelandic citizenship since 2022.
She is widely known for her translations of classical Greek literature, which heavily influences her work which ranges from opera libretti to literary criticism and verse novels such as “Autobiography of Red” from 1998.
“Almost all her literary production has centred upon the intersection between the philologist’s obsession with words and the poet’s desire for new meaning,” the Academy said.
“She has herself identified the etymology of words as the starting point for all her work. Her translations from Classical Greek may be regarded as independent works in their own right.”
Her style is exemplified in “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy” from 2019, a performance piece which mixes the stories of Helen of Troy in Euripides’ play “Helen” and Marilyn Monroe.
Carson had been among favourites this year
Carson, 76, had been among the favourites to win this year’s prize, according to bookmakers Ladbrokes, and takes a place beside luminaries such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alice Munro and Ernest Hemingway as a recipient of the award, which often divides opinion among book lovers.
The Academy has been lambasted for ignoring some of the literary titans of the last 120 years such as Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges, criticised for snubbing US authors – though it gave the prize to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016 – and accused of being too obscure in its choices.
Defenders say the Academy has made popular picks, such as Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982 and Doris Lessing in 2007, arguing that part of its task is to highlight lesser-known literary traditions and encourage readers to broaden their horizons.
Established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901.
Last year’s prize was won by Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, dubbed the “master of the apocalypse” by American critic Susan Sontag.
