Canadian poet and writer Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature for her distinctive and innovative body of work. The Swedish Academy announced the award on Thursday, praising Carson “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.”

The Nobel Prize in Literature carries an award of 12 million Swedish kronor, worth around $1.2 million. Carson, a poet, essayist and translator, is known for combining different literary forms. Her work often brings together poetry, prose, dialogue and translation in ways that challenge traditional categories.

Classical Greek literature has played a major role in Carson’s writing. She has translated several Greek works and drawn heavily from classical traditions in her own writing. Her wide-ranging work includes poetry, literary criticism, opera libretti and verse novels.

One of her best-known works is Autobiography of Red, published in 1998. The verse novel draws on the ancient Greek myth of Geryon and combines elements of poetry and fiction. Carson’s genre-defying approach is also evident in Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, a 2019 performance piece.

In the work, Carson brings together the story of Helen of Troy from Euripides’ play Helen with the life and image of American actress Marilyn Monroe. The work reflects her wider approach of connecting classical literature with modern culture.

Carson now joins a long list of major literary figures who have received the Nobel Prize, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alice Munro and Ernest Hemingway. The award has often sparked debate among readers and critics over the Swedish Academy’s choices.

The Academy has faced criticism for overlooking some of the most influential writers of the past 120 years, including Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges. It has also faced accusations of overlooking American writers, although it awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 2016.

Supporters of the Academy argue that its choices can introduce readers to less familiar literary traditions and encourage them to explore writers beyond the most widely known names. It has also honoured popular literary figures, including Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez in 1982 and Doris Lessing in 2007.

The Nobel Prizes were established through the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel. The awards for achievements in literature, science and peace have been presented since 1901. Last year, Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai received the Nobel Prize in Literature. American critic Susan Sontag had earlier described him as the “master of the apocalypse”.