*Soyinka Won It In 1986
Canadian poet, classicist and translator, Anne Carson, has, today, won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The 76-year-old is best known for genre-crossing works such as Autobiography of Red, a queer coming-of-age story which reimagines a poem by the ancient Greek poet Stesichorus.
Born in 1950 in Toronto, Carson earned a PhD in Classics and has taught at a number of universities throughout her decades-long career.
Her works include Plainwater, Wrong Norma and The Beauty of the Husband. She became the first woman to ever win the TS Eliot prize with the latter in 2001.
In 1986, Wole Soyinka put Nigeria’s name high up on the global literary map when he became the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Nobel Committee chair Anders Olsson told a press conference that Carson has “broken away from lyrical poetry bound to the narrative self and inspired new forms of contemporary literature. This method of writing leads to playful and ironic works that move not only between classical and modern poetry but also between different genres and artforms.”
*PHOTO CAPTION: Carson.
