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Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature earlier on Thursday, for her innovative writing, the Swedish Academy announced.

The Academy said the 76-year-old, Toronto-born writer was awarded the highest honor in literature “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.

A classicist, Carson masterfully combines elements of poetry, essay and fiction in her work, inspired by ancient Greek and Roman literature. She has translated works by several Greek poets and playwrights, including Sappho, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, among others. Her translations of classical Greek literature, the Swedish Academy said, “may be regarded as independent works in their own right.”

According to Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Carson was taken by surprise when she was notified of the Nobel win.

Some of Carson’s best-known books include “Eros the Bittersweet,” “Autobiography of Red,” “Men in the Off Hours,” and “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” which draws parallels between Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy.

Copies of books by Anne Carson, winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize for Literature, are displayed at Waterstones bookshop in London, Britain, October 8, 2026. Photo: Reuters / Hannah McKay

“Almost all her literary production has centered upon the intersection between the philologist’s obsession with words and the poet’s desire for new meaning,” said Anders Olsson, chair of the literature committee. What sets Carson’s work apart, according to Olsson, is her genre-defying writing, which draws inspiration from figures ranging from the ancient Greeks and John Keats to Virginia Woolf and Emily Bronte. Her work, he said, “leads to playful and ironic works that move not only between classical and modern poetry but also between different genres and artforms.”

Carson has taught classics at several North American universities and lives in Iceland with her husband.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is accompanied by 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million). Last year’s Nobel laureate was Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai. Earlier this week, the Swedish Academy announced the winners of the Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics and chemistry.

The Nobel Peace Prize is set to be announced Friday.