Literature 2026 · Announced Oct 8
A poet who makes ancient Greek feel like it was written this morning.
One winner
In plain words
Carson is a Canadian poet and a scholar of ancient Greek. Her books mix poems, essays and translation, often all at once. She takes very old stories and tells them in a voice that feels new.
Why it matters
She changed what a book of poems can look like. One is a novel in verse about a red winged boy. Another is a folded scroll in a box, made after her brother died.
The official reason
"for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition…"
The winners
40
years from her first book (1986) to the prize
The long road
- 1986First book: Eros the Bittersweet.
- 1998Autobiography of Red, a novel in verse.
- 2002If Not, Winter, her translation of Sappho.
- 2010Nox, a book in a box, in memory of her brother.
- 2026Nobel Prize in Literature.