Canadian poet Anne Carson wins Nobel Prize in Literature

STOCKHOLM — Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

The Swedish Academy in Stockholm recognized the 76-year-old for "her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature."

Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary to the academy, said she reached Carson in Iceland, where the poet was "listening to the wind."

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"She was taken by surprise, but very happy," Carlberg said. "I could hear that in her voice."

Carson's work blends poetry, prose, translation and classical scholarship, drawing heavily on ancient Greek and Latin literature.

Her best-known work is the 1998 novel in verse "Autobiography of Red," which reimagines a Greek myth as a modern love story.

She has won numerous awards, including two Griffin Poetry Prizes, a Governor General's Literary Award and Britain's T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, which she was the first woman to win in 2001 for "The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos."

Carson also received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Member of the Order of Canada.

Born in Toronto in 1950, Carson studied classics at the University of Toronto, earning a bachelor's degree in 1974, a master's in 1975 and a PhD in 1981.

Her first book, "Eros the Bittersweet," was published in 1986. Her doctoral thesis was entitled "Odi et Amo Ergo Sum."

Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel committee for literature, said Carson's career has "combined poetry writing with translation work and teaching at various universities."

"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," Olsson said.

"On behalf of the University of Toronto, I am absolutely delighted to congratulate alumna Anne Carson on winning the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature," said U of T President Melanie Woodin.

Carson's publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, also offered congratulations.

"It is a true honour for all of us at Penguin Random House Canada to bring her groundbreaking work to Canadians, and to congratulate her on this recognition for the way that work has changed the perspectives of readers the world over," said CEO Kristin Cochrane.

In a 2014 interview with The Canadian Press after winning her second Griffin Prize, Carson expressed surprise.

"I don't mean it's a bad book," she said. "I mean, I don't know if it's a good book or a bad book. I just have a vision when I start of what a thing is and sometimes it gets there and sometimes it doesn't."

Her recent works include the 2020 Governor General's Award-winning "Norma Jeane Baker of Troy" and 2024's "Wrong Norma."

She is the second Canadian woman to win the literature Nobel, following Alice Munro in 2013. Saul Bellow, born in Canada, won in 1976.

The prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.7 million.

Carson will receive the medal and diploma at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

With files from The Canadian Press, CBC News and Narcity