Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, recognised for a body of work that the Swedish Academy described as a bold and inventive contribution to contemporary writing shaped by a playful engagement with the classical tradition.
The prize, presented by the Swedish Academy, is worth 12 million Swedish crowns (€1.07m).
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Carson, a poet and essayist, is known for work that moves freely between verse, prose, dialogue and translation, resisting easy classification.
Her writing is deeply informed by translations of classical Greek literature and spans opera libretti, literary criticism and verse novels, including her 1998 work ‘Autobiography of Red’.
Copies of Anne Carson’s books on display at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm today
Writer in Iceland ‘listening to the wind’
Carson reacted to the honour with characteristic disbelief, saying the Swedish Academy members were “crazy” to have chosen her.
“Crazy. I think they’re all crazy… Well, you know, it’s crazy,” Carson, who is currently in Iceland, told public broadcaster RUV shortly after the announcement.
In announcing the 2026 award, Academy permanent secretary Ingrid Carlberg said she had spoken briefly with Carson by phone and that the writer was in Iceland “listening to the wind”.
“You can’t help but listen to the wind here,” Carson told RUV, gripping her cap as she tried to stop it from blowing away.
According to RUV, Carson has spent part of every year in Iceland for more than 15 years. She is also a citizen of the country.
Asked whether the Nobel would bring her a larger readership, Carson offered a dry assessment: “Well, I guess the publisher hopes so.”
“I’ll get a sticker on the front of my books,” she added.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Carson’s Nobel win a “proud moment” for Canada.
Writing on X, he said the 76-year-old author’s work is marked by “wit, imagination, and a style entirely her own”.
“She has brought ancient stories to new audiences and transformed the way we think about literature,” he said, describing the honour as “an extraordinary achievement and a proud moment for Canada.”
Carson will formally receive the award from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on 10 December.
She now joins literary figures including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alice Munro and Ernest Hemingway as a Nobel laureate, adding her name to an award that has long provoked debate among readers and critics.
The Academy has faced sustained criticism for overlooking some of the past 120 years’ most influential writers, including Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges. It has also been accused of snubbing US authors, despite awarding the prize to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016, and of favouring choices that many readers find too obscure.
Supporters counter that the Academy has also made widely celebrated selections, including Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982 and Doris Lessing in 2007. They argue that the prize should not only honour established names but also draw attention to lesser-known literary traditions and encourage audiences to look beyond familiar choices.
Created through the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901.
Last year’s literature prize went to Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, whom American critic Susan Sontag once dubbed the “master of the apocalypse”.
