Photo: Roman Kraft / Unsplash
Literature Nobel for Anne Carson, Canadian poet in dialogue with the classics
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Anne Carson, a Canadian poet, essayist and translator. The Swedish Academy announced it in Stockholm on Thursday.
The Academy praised her bold and innovative works, which in a playful dialogue with the classical tradition have created new forms in contemporary literature.
Carson is 76. She was born in Toronto on 21 June 1950 and is also a classical scholar. She heard the news in Iceland, where she has held citizenship since 2022. “She was very taken by surprise,” said Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Academy.
Poetry, essays and antiquity
Her best-known book is “Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse” from 1998. Her other works include “Eros the Bittersweet”, “Nox” from 2010, an elegy written after her brother's death, and “Wrong Norma” from 2024.
Links with Poland
On 12 June 2025 Carson received the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award in Warsaw. “Autobiography of Red” came out in Polish in 2022, translated by Maciej Topolski and published by Ossolineum. Topolski won the Wisława Szymborska Award for the translation. In 2024 Ossolineum also published “Decreation”.
The prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor, about 4.7 million zł. The Nobel Prizes will be presented in Stockholm on 10 December.
Source: Swedish Academy, RMF24, Rzeczpospolita, PBS (8 Oct 2026)