Canadian poet Anne Carson wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, with the Swedish Academy honouring her “bold and inventive oeuvre” and its playful dialogue with the classical tradition.

Carson was announced as the laureate on Thursday by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. She will receive 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million, alongside the prestigious award. The academy said Carson was recognised “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.

Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Carson was in Iceland “listening to the wind” when the academy reached her to inform her of the award. Born in Toronto, Carson frequently draws on themes and stories from ancient Greek and Roman literature. Her works often combine elements of poetry, essays and fiction.

Her books include Eros the Bittersweet, which explores the pleasure and pain of desire in ancient Greek literature, and the verse novel Autobiography of Red. She also wrote Men in the Off Hours, a collection of poetry and prose that won Canada’s Griffin Prize for poetry in 2001, and Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, which compares Marilyn Monroe with Helen of Troy.

The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Last year, Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His surreal and anarchic novels combine a bleak worldview with mordant humour, and the judges said his work upholds the power of art amid “apocalyptic terror”.

Three science Nobel Prizes were announced earlier this week. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for work that led to a tool using light to help unravel how the brain works.

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Francis Halzen for his work involving neutrinos, while the Chemistry Prize went jointly to France’s Henri Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai for work on mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop numerous drugs.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, bringing this week’s awards to a close. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday. The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million, whether the award goes to an individual, a small group of laureates or an organisation.