Canadian poet, essayist, and translator Anne Carson has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. At 76 years old, Carson is celebrated for her works that often cross the boundaries between poetry, fiction, and scholarship. The Nobel Prize committee selected her "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature."
“"I think they're all crazy... Well, you know, it's crazy," Carson remarked in a light-hearted response to the honor during an interview with public broadcaster RUV in Iceland, where she is currently staying.
The Nobel Prize is awarded for a lifetime's body of work and is regarded as the most prestigious award in global literature, with the winner receiving 12 million Swedish kronor (approximately £900,000 or $1.2 million). Ingrid Carlberg, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, shared that she had informed Carson of the news via phone shortly before the public announcement.
“"She had time to tell me that she is, for the moment, in Iceland, where she is listening to the wind," Carlberg said. "She was taken by surprise but very happy. I could hear that in her voice."
Background on Anne Carson
Born in Toronto in 1950, Carson currently resides in Michigan and has held Icelandic citizenship since 2022. Anders Olsson, chairman of the Swedish Academy's Nobel committee for Literature, praised Carson for breaking away from lyrical poetry bound to the narrative self, inspiring new forms of contemporary literature.
