The Nobel Prize for Literature was announced this week, recognising Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson.
Born in Toronto, Carson attended my alma mater the University of Toronto, graduating with degrees in classics a BA (1974), a MA (1975) and a PhD (1981). She became a professor, teaching classics, comparative literature and creative writing at McGill, NYU, Princeton, University of Michigan and University of Calgary.
Carson has written over twenty books, including poetry, essays and translations of Ancient Greek tragedies. She has been awarded the TS Eliot Prize, Governor General's Award for English-language Poetry, the PEN/Nabakov Award, and many other recognitions for her work.
While I have known of Carson for decades, I have not read her work. Let's take a quick look at some of her best known writing:
- Canicula di Anna (1984) - Carson's first collection of poetry.
- Eros the Bittersweet (1986) - a book of criticism examining pleasure and pain, this is a reworking of her doctoral thesis. It was named on Modern Library reader's list of 100 Best Nonfiction of the 20th Century.
- Autobiography of Red (1998) - Reimagining the Ancient Greek poem Geryoneis about Heracles and Geryon, Carson portrays Geryon as a gay teenager in the present day who calls in love.
- Men in the Off Hours (2000) - a collection of poems, essays, epitaphs, translations. Prior to this Carson wrote lengthy poems, but here she switched to short verse.
- The Beauty of the Husband (2001) - Subtitled 'a fictional essay in 29 Tangos' this collection of poetry won the TS Eliot Prize.
- Red Doc> (2013) - A collection of prose, poetry and drama, this book picks up the story of the Autobiography of Red. It received the Griffin Poetry Prize.
The Nobel Academy praised Carson "for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature".
In recent years, the Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to:
- Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai (2025)
- South Korean author Han Kang (2024)
- Norwegian author Jon Fosse (2023)
- French writer Annie Ernaux (2022)
- East African/British author Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021)
- American poet and essayist Louise Gluck (2000)
As I have said previously, I would love to have Margaret Atwood, Gerald Murnane or Alexis Wright recognised with the Nobel one day. Will have to see what happens next year.
