Canadian poet Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. The prize was awarded for the creation of new forms in modern literature.
Other 2026 favorites
There is no official list of candidates for the Nobel Prize, and the names of the nominees and the content of the jury's deliberations remain classified for 50 years. Therefore, in anticipation of the announcement of the laureate, literary critics and bookmakers were actively guessing who would receive the prize.
Experts have noted that this year's prize could go to a writer from Latin America or the Caribbean amid efforts to make the pool of laureates more diverse. Over the years, the prize has been more often awarded to men and European authors.
Among the possible winners was Jamaica Kincaid, a 77-year-old American writer born in Antigua, whose works explore Caribbean culture, family and identity, as well as themes of colonialism and race.
Chinese writer Can Xue was also among the contenders. Her avant-garde experimental prose has been compared to the work of Franz Kafka.
Canadian poet Anne Carson, as in previous years, was also among the top favorites of bookmakers and literary critics.
History of the Literature Prize
The Swedish Academy in its choice is bound not only by the general framework of the Nobel Foundation's statutes (the work submitted for the prize must bring maximum benefits to all humanity), but also by Nobel's specific remark that a literary work should provide this benefit in an “idealistic direction.”
Both criteria are quite vague, especially the second, which has caused a lot of controversy. What exactly did Nobel mean by idealism? It is very difficult to trace the history of how the Swedish Academy's interpretation of Nobel's will changed, because, according to the foundation's charter, all documentation and correspondence must be kept secret for 50 years.
The modern interpretation of the will still adheres to the point of view that by idealism Nobel did not mean an idealistic direction in literature, but rather the ideal execution, language and style of a work that make it outstanding.
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded 118 times, to 122 people. Four times it was awarded to several laureates simultaneously. Among the laureates are 18 women.
The youngest winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is Rudyard Kipling, who received it in 1907 at the age of 41. The oldest is Doris Lessing, who became a laureate in 2007, she was 87 years old.
The prize was not awarded seven times: in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943.
Two people refused the prize: Boris Pasternak in 1958 initially accepted the prize, but later refused it under pressure from the authorities of the Soviet Union, and in 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre refused the prize, as he consistently refused all official awards.
Laureates of past years
2025: Laszlo Krasznahorkai (Hungary)
2024: Han Gang (South Korea)
2023: Jun Fosse (Norway)
2022: Annie Hernault (France)
2021: Abdulrazaq Gurna (Tanzania)
2020: Louise Gluck (USA)
2019: Peter Handke (Austria)
2018: Olga Tokarczuk (Poland)
2017: Kazuo Ishiguro (UK)
2016: Bob Dylan (USA)
2015: Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus)
2014: Patrick Modiano (France)
2013: Alice Munro (Canada)
2012: Mo Yan (China)
2011: Thomas Tranströmer (Sweden)
2010: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
2009: Herta Müller (Germany)
2008: Jean-Marie Le Clezio (France)
2007: Doris Lessing (UK)
2006: Orhan Pamuk (Türkiye)
