Anne Carson wins 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday, citing her “bold and inventive” body of work.

Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday, citing her “bold and inventive” body of work.

Carson was honored “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.”

The 76-year-old Carson is known for combining poetry, prose, translation and dialogue, often drawing on classical Greek literature and mythology.

Her work includes poetry, essays, translations and works that blur conventional literary genres. Her 1998 book Autobiography of Red, for example, reworks the Greek myth of Geryon, while Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, published in 2019, combines the story of Helen of Troy with the life and image of Marilyn Monroe.

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“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,” the Academy said in its description of Carson’s work.

Carson has also translated classical Greek works and has taught classics at universities in Canada and the United States.

She joins a list of Canadian Nobel literature laureates that includes Alice Munro, who won in 2013. Other notable literature laureates include Ernest Hemingway and László Krasznahorkai.

Krasznahorkai, a Hungarian writer, received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.