What to know
- Toronto-born poet and author Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Carson is the second Canadian woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Alice Munro won in 2013.
- The Swedish Academy praised Carson for her “bold and inventive oeuvre” and her playful dialogue with the classical tradition.
- Carson studied Greek poetry at the University of Toronto, earning a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and PhD.
- She has published more than 25 books, essays, poetry collections and translations, including Autobiography of Red and Wrong Norma.
Toronto-born poet and University of Toronto alumna Anne Carson has won a Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the second Canadian woman to receive the award.
The 2026 Nobel Prize was announced earlier on Thursday, and awarded the Canadian author “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.”
Carson is the second Canadian woman to have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, after short story author Alice Munro received the award in 2013.
Who is Anne Carson?
Carson was born in Toronto in 1950, and enrolled at the University of Toronto to study Greek poetry in 1968, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1974, a master’s in 1975, and a PhD in 1981. She went on to teach at various universities, including McGill University, Michigan University, and Princeton University. Throughout her career, the author has combined poetry writing and translation work.
The Canadian author’s first book is Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay, published in 1986 by Princeton University Press. The essay grew out of her doctoral thesis Odi et Amo Ergo Sum, which was published in 1981, a classical study literary work led by Eros, the ancient Greek god of love. This book created the foundation for her next works.
Throughout her career, Carson published over 25 major books, essays, poetry collections and translations, including Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse in 1998, which is considered one of her greatest works, said to demonstrate her ability to actualize classical literature, according to the Swedish Academy.
The novel’s sequel, Red Doc>, has led her to become the first two-time winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2014, after she won the first award in 2001 for the prose collection Men in the Off Hours. She was also the first woman to win Britain’s T.S. Eliot Prize in 2001 for The Beauty of the Husband.
Her most recent major works include a collection of prose and poetry with her own drawn illustrations titled Wrong Norma, published in 2024, and The Gender of Sound, an essay published in 2025 that examines how Western culture associates specific sounds with gender and power.
‘What a day for Canadian literature’: reaction kicks in
Reactions to the 2026 Nobel Prize announcement are starting to kick in online, with many sharing their love for the Canadian author on social media.
“What a day for Canadian literature and for classicists! So happy to wake up to this! Congratulations, Anne Carson!” one person wrote on Instagram.
“So deserved! For years, she’s been my prediction and now: at last!” another user said.
“These books have walked me through this life. Thank you Anne Carson!” a different person said.
“Our true Canadian legend! Congratulations!” another user added.
