Oct 9, 2026 · 3 min · 4 segments
Hailed for her "bold and inventive" work, "in playful dialogue with the classical tradition", the Canadian poet, translator and essayist Anne Carson has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. We take a…
Hi, Olivia.
Uh, so can you tell us more about the author then and her work as well?
So as you say, Anne Carson probably best known for being a contemporary writer with very strong ties to the past, this dialogue with the literary canon, not only 19th century writers or early 20th century, but ancient Greek and Latin texts.
A hybrid author mixing poetry, prose, essay, autobiographical elements to make her own forms.
She's now the 19th woman to win a Nobel for literature, uh, mainly for this exciting sort of literature of her own, her unique voice that she makes, uh, her own.
Her most famous text is perhaps autobiogra- Autobiography of Red from, uh, 1998.
It's a sort of coming-of-age story that explores love, monstrosity, desire.
Another fantastically titled piece is called Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, after the Euripides play, where Helen of Troy, uh, is supplanted by Marilyn Monroe for a sort of spoken sung performance that was staged in New York in 2018.
And beyond her writing and teaching, uh, Carson divides her time between Canada and Iceland, and that's where she was when she heard the news of the prize.
The Nobel Academy said that when she picked up the phone, she was in Iceland listening to the wind, which sounds quite appropriate for a poet.
Hi, Olivia.
Uh, so can you tell us more about the author then and her work as well?
So as you say, Anne Carson probably best known for being a contemporary writer with very strong ties to the past, this dialogue with the literary canon, not only 19th century writers or early 20th century, but ancient Greek and Latin texts.
A hybrid author mixing poetry, prose, essay, autobiographical elements to make her own forms.
She's now the 19th woman to win a Nobel for literature, uh, mainly for this exciting sort of literature of her own, her unique voice that she makes, uh, her own.
Her most famous text is perhaps autobiogra- Autobiography of Red from, uh, 1998.
It's a sort of coming-of-age story that explores love, monstrosity, desire.
Another fantastically titled piece is called Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, after the Euripides play, where Helen of Troy, uh, is supplanted by Marilyn Monroe for a sort of spoken sung performance that was staged in New York in 2018.
And beyond her writing and teaching, uh, Carson divides her time between Canada and Iceland, and that's where she was when she heard the news of the prize.
The Nobel Academy said that when she picked up the phone, she was in Iceland listening to the wind, which sounds quite appropriate for a poet.
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