New Delhi: Canadian poet and author Anne Carson has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday. The award recognizes her “daring and innovative writing style,” which creates new forms for contemporary literature through a lighthearted dialogue with the classical tradition. The award, presented by the Swedish Academy, carries a prize sum of 12 million Swedish krona, equivalent to approximately $1.2 million.
Ingrid Carlberg, the academy’s permanent secretary, said Carson was “deeply surprised” by the news. They didn’t have much time to talk. She simply said she was currently in Iceland and listening to the wind. Carson’s writing is a blend of poetry, prose, dialogue, and translation, unbound by any single genre. She was born in Toronto and has held Icelandic citizenship since 2022.
Carson is known for her translations of ancient Greek literature
She is known for her translations of ancient Greek literature. These translations have had a profound influence on her own writing. Her work includes operatic lyrics, literary criticism, and the 1998 verse-novel “Autobiography of Red.” The Academy said that almost all of her works are rooted in the relationship between a linguist’s passion for words and a poet’s desire to discover new meanings. She considers the origin of words themselves to be the beginning of her work. Her translations from ancient Greek can be considered independent works in themselves.
An example of her style is 2019’s “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” a stage play that interweaves the stories of Helen of Troy from Euripides’ play “Helen” and Marilyn Monroe. Carson, 76, was among the favorites to win the award this year, with bookmaker Ladbrokes citing her as a front-runner. Other contenders included Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alice Munro, and Ernest Hemingway.
