Anne Carson bags Literature Nobel

STOCKHOLM, Oct 8: Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature", the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.

"She was very taken by surprise," said Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the academy, which awards the prize worth 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million).

"We didn't have so much time to speak, and all she had time to tell me was that she is for the moment in Iceland, where she's listening to the wind."

Carson's work often blends verse, prose, dialogue and translation in a genre-defying mix. Born in Toronto, the 76-year-old has also held Icelandic citizenship since 2022 and has spent considerable time on the Arctic island in recent years.

She is widely known for her translations of classical Greek literature, which heavily influences her work that ranges from opera libretti to literary criticism and verse novels such as "Autobiography of Red" from 1998.

"Almost all her literary production has centred upon the intersection between the philologist's obsession with words and the poet's desire for new meaning," the Academy said.

"She has herself identified the etymology of words as the starting point for all her work. Her translations from Classical Greek may be regarded as independent works in their own right."

Her style is exemplified in "Norma Jeane Baker of Troy" from 2019, a performance piece which mixes the stories of Helen of Troy in Euripides' play "Helen" and Marilyn Monroe.

Tapping into more modern inspirations, Carson reflected on the character of Albertine, one of the narrator Marcel's love interests in Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time", in her own book "The Albertine Workout".

Carson had spent seven years reading Proust's masterpiece and said in an interview with Canada's CBC Radio One in 2016 that she suffered withdrawal symptoms after finishing the book, leading her to write "The Albertine Workout" as a way to prolong the experience.

"You think life goes on after Proust, but it seems so grey," she said. �"­REUTERS