Nobel Prizes: Nobel Prize in Literature for Canadian Anne Carson

Canadian poet and author Anne Carson will be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature this year. This was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The 76-year-old is receiving the award for her "bold and inventive work, which has created new forms for contemporary literature in a playful dialogue with the classical tradition," as the Academy's permanent secretary, Ingrid Carlberg, said at the announcement.

Carlberg said she was able to speak briefly with the award winner on the phone. «She was very surprised. We didn't have much time to talk, but she told me she was in Iceland listening to the wind."

Most important award in the literary world

The Nobel Prize in Literature is considered the most important literary award in the world. Around 200 nominations are received every year. As with all Nobel Prizes, whoever is nominated for the prize is subject to secrecy for 50 years.

In 2025, the Swedish Academy honored the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai “for his irresistible and visionary oeuvre that affirms the power of art in the midst of apocalyptic terror.” After the jury awarded a European man, many speculated before this year's award that a woman from another continent could now be chosen.

In recent years, the prize has always been awarded alternately to male and female writers. The last German-speaking Nobel Prize winner for literature was the Austrian Peter Handke, who received the award in 2019. The last German prize winners were Herta Müller in 2009, Günter Grass in 1999 and Heinrich Böll in 1972.

Higher prize money than in previous years

Like the other Nobel Prizes this year, the Nobel Prize in Literature is endowed with twelve million Swedish crowns, one million crowns more than in previous years. The prize money is equivalent to more than one million euros.

The literary award is traditionally announced as the fourth Nobel Prize during the annual Nobel Week. Prize winners in the scientific categories of medicine, physics and chemistry had already been announced since Monday. Among the three Nobel Prize winners for medicine are two German researchers, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel.

Prizes for Peace and Economics are still pending

At the end of the week, it will be announced on Friday who will receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize. After the controversial award for Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado last year, experts suspect that the Norwegian jury could opt for less controversial candidates this year.

Machado caused a stir because she dedicated her prize to US President Donald Trump and also symbolically presented him with the prestigious Nobel medal. Trump often portrays himself as a peacemaker in various conflict areas around the world and has therefore repeatedly put himself up for the award.

The last prize will be awarded in the economics category on Monday. The award has only been presented since 1969 and is the only one that does not go back to the will of the Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). All prizes will be presented on December 10th, the anniversary of the prize donor's death.