New Delhi: Canadian poet and tragedian Anne Carson has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy spoken on Thursday. The ribbon recognizes her "daring and innovative writing style," which creates new forms for trendy literature through a lighthearted dialogue with the classical tradition. The award, presented by the Swedish Academy, carries a prize sum of 12 million Swedish krona, equivalent to approximately $1.2 million.
Ingrid Carlberg, the academy's permanent secretary, said Carson was "deeply surprised" by the news. They didn't have much time to talk. She simply said she was currently in Iceland and listening to the wind. Carson's writing is a tousle of poetry, prose, dialogue, and translation, unbound by any single genre. She was born in Toronto and has held Icelandic citizenship since 2022.
Carson is known for her translations of warmed-over Greek literature
She is known for her translations of warmed-over Greek literature. These translations have had a profound influence on her own writing. Her work includes operatic lyrics, literary criticism, and the 1998 verse-novel "Autobiography of Red." The Academy said that scrutinizingly all of her works are rooted in the relationship between a linguist's passion for words and a poet's desire to discover new meanings. She considers the origin of words themselves to be the whence of her work. Her translations from warmed-over Greek can be considered self-sustaining works in themselves.
An example of her style is 2019's "Norma Jeane Baker of Troy," a stage play that interweaves the stories of Helen of Troy from Euripides' play "Helen" and Marilyn Monroe. Carson, 76, was among the favorites to win the ribbon this year, with bookmaker Ladbrokes citing her as a front-runner. Other contenders included Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alice Munro, and Ernest Hemingway.
