Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.
Carson, 76, is celebrated for works that often cross the boundaries between poetry, fiction and scholarship.
The Nobel Prize committee said they had selected her “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.
Carson responded by joking that the judges were “crazy” for honouring her. “I think they’re all crazy… Well, you know, it’s crazy,” she told public broadcaster RUV in Iceland, where she is currently staying.
The Nobel Prize is awarded for a lifetime’s body of work and is regarded as the most prestigious award in global literature, with the winner receiving 12 million Swedish kronor (£900,000, $1.2m).
Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said she had broken the news to Carson on the phone shortly before the public announcement.
“She had time to tell me was that she is, for the moment, in Iceland, where she is listening to the wind,” Carlberg, said.
“She was taken by surprise but very happy. I could hear that in her voice.”
