New Delhi: Canadian author Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday.
Carson, 76, was recognised for ‘her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature’, the Academy said in the live announcement.
This makes Carson the 19th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature out of 123 total laureates. The last was South Korean author Han Kang in 2024.
BREAKING NEWS
The 2026 #NobelPrize in Literature is awarded to the Canadian author Anne Carson, “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.” pic.twitter.com/YRvlRghlGG
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2026
Carson is a poet, essayist, classicist, and translator known for her genre-bending works. Her famous works include Eros the Bittersweet (1986), Autobiography of Red (1998), Men in the Off Hours (2000), and The Beauty of the Husband (2001).
The prize, one of the highest honours in world literature, carries an award of 12 million Swedish kronor (Rs 11.5 crore).
In the days before the announcement, Carson and Chinese experimental writer Can Xue were among the leading favourites. Australian novelist Gerald Murnane, perennial favourite Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and American writer Thomas Pynchon were also prominent names in the speculation.
Other writers frequently mentioned included Argentine novelist César Aira, Indian writer Amitav Ghosh, Mexican author Cristina Rivera Garza, Jamaican-American writer Jamaica Kincaid and Romanian novelist Mircea Cărtărescu.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Literature went to László Krasznahorkai, the Hungarian novelist whose work the Academy praised for its “visionary” power and ability to affirm the power of art amid apocalyptic terror.
The Swedish Academy will formally present the Nobel diploma, medal and prize money to Carson at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm in December.