The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, has awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature to Canadian author and poet, Anne Carson.
The Academy’s Secretary-General, Ingrid Carlberg, announced Carson as the winner of the prestigious prize on Thursday.
She said, “Ms Carson was honoured for her bold and inventive oeuvre that in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.”
Carlberg said she phoned Carson, who is currently in Iceland, where she was “listening to the wind”.
According to Carlberg, Carson “was very taken by surprise” when she received the news.
The 76-year-old author studied at the University of Toronto and has taught comparative literature and creative writing at institutions across Canada and the United States.
Carson, who has written more than 20 books, is a poet, an essayist and classicist who brings a modern twist to mysticism and antiquity in her writings about love, desire and despair.
Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2025.
