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It was for her “bold and inventive” work, the jury announced Thursday.
The author, who was in Iceland when the prize was announced, was awarded “for her bold and inventive work which, in a playful dialogue with classical tradition, has given birth to new forms for contemporary literature,” said Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.
Anne Carson later on Thursday said it was “crazy” to have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. “It’s crazy. They’re all crazy,” she said in a brief interview with Icelandic television.
Anne Carson, born in Toronto on June 21, 1950, once described boredom as “her sworn enemy.” It is a state she confronts with caustic humor and great wit, the Nobel committee noted.
Scholarly work
The Canadian’s name had been circulating for several years in Nobel Prize speculation. Her erudite and difficult-to-classify work brings mythological heroes, ancient and romantic authors into dialogue, blurring the lines between poetry, essay, translation and narrative.
‘The Beauty of the Husband’, published in 2001, tells the story of a scathing and sarcastic argument with an unfaithful husband. Each of its twenty-nine episodes opens with lines from the Romantic poet John Keats. Keats’s words, that beauty is truth, are juxtaposed in a way that is both brutal and playful with this exhausting relationship drama, the committee explains.
Anne Carson is particularly known for ‘Nox’, a work published in 2010 in memory of her brother Michael, who mysteriously disappeared before dying in Denmark in 2000, the Swedish Academy notes. The book, which blends texts, photographs, and fragments, unfolds accordion-style onto a long, continuous sheet several meters in length.
Few women awarded prizes
Last year, Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai won the prestigious award for his dystopian and melancholic work. Anne Carson succeeds him in a list of winners historically dominated by Western men and writers.
Since its inception, only 19 women have been among the 123 recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Authors writing in Asian or Middle Eastern languages remain a minority, and no African language is represented.
Nobel Peace Prize on Friday
The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Nobel Prize comes with a diploma, a medal, and a check for 12 million Swedish kronor, or just over one million euros. The prizes are traditionally awarded on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is the fourth prize announced this year, in accordance with tradition, following those for Medicine on Monday, Physics on Tuesday, and Chemistry on Wednesday. The announcements of the Nobel Peace Prize (Friday) and the Nobel Prize in Economics (next Monday) will follow in the coming days.
