On 8 October 2026, the Swedish Academy announced the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The laureate is the Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson.
The academy's citation reads: "for bold and inventive writing that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for modern literature."
Carson was born in 1950 in Toronto. She studied classics, taught at universities in Canada and the United States, and translated Sappho, Euripides and Sophocles. Her texts often blur the boundaries between poetry, prose and essay.
Among her best-known works are "Autobiography of Red" (1998), a novel in verse, and "Eros the Bittersweet" (1986). Both books have been translated into Russian.
Carson has become the third Canadian writer to receive this award, after Saul Bellow and Alice Munro. She is the 19th woman among the 123 laureates in literature.
The news caught the author in Iceland, where she has a home. According to the academy's permanent secretary, Carson answered the call briefly: "Yikes."
In Canada the news brought particular joy: Prime Minister Mark Carney called it "an extraordinary achievement" and noted how Carson opens up ancient stories anew for modern readers.
What makes her writing so special in the eyes of the academicians? Precisely her ability to turn ancient fragments into living, experimental texts in which antiquity and modernity speak in a single voice.
The prize is awarded on 10 December in Stockholm. The award amounts to 12 million Swedish kronor.
