The 76-year-old Carson was born in Toronto, studied Ancient Greek literature, and taught at universities in Canada and the United States.
According to the Nobel Committee, her books lie at the intersection of a philological interest in words and a poet’s drive to find new meanings in them. In Carson’s work, ancient myths are combined with contemporary plots, and she herself works with poetry, prose, drama, and literary criticism.
Among Carson’s best-known books are the verse novel “Autobiography of Red” (1998), in which the myth of the winged giant Geryon is transformed into a story of coming of age, love, and loneliness in a modern teenager, and “Norma Jean Baker of Troy” (2019), which combines the stories of Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe. Carson has also translated Sappho, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the Swedish Academy considers her translations from Ancient Greek to be independent literary works.
In particular, “Autobiography of Red”, published in 2021, and “Eros the Bittersweet”, released in 2024, have been translated into Russian. This book explores the nature of love and desire through the works of ancient Greek authors, above all Sappho and Plato.
Carson has repeatedly received international literary awards. In 2001, she became the first woman to receive the British T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry; in 2020, she received Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for Literature; and in June 2025, she received the international literary prize named after the Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert in Warsaw.
The news of the Nobel Prize found Carson in Iceland, whose citizenship she obtained in 2022 alongside Canadian citizenship. The Nobel Prize amount in 2026 is 12 million Swedish kronor; last year the award went to the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, and on October 9 and October 12, 2026, the laureates of the Peace Prize and the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences are to be announced; the award ceremony will take place on December 10 in Stockholm.
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