Anne Carson just won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Canada hasn't had one since Alice Munro.

Canada has its first Nobel laureate in literature in 13 years. The Swedish Academy awarded the 2026 prize to Anne Carson, the 76-year-old Toronto-born poet, essayist and translator of classical Greek — the first Canadian to win since Alice Munro in 2013, and only the second Canadian woman ever.

Carson learned the news in Reykjavik, Iceland, where, in the words of Academy permanent secretary Ingrid Carlberg, she was "listening to the wind." Carson has held Icelandic citizenship since 2022. The Academy cited her "bold and inventive oeuvre in playful dialogue with the classical tradition" — a body of work spanning more than four decades, from the verse novel Autobiography of Red (1998) to her translations of Sappho, Sophocles and Euripides, which the Academy said "may be regarded as independent works in their own right."

Her Canadian roots run deep: born in Toronto, Carson earned three degrees from the University of Toronto, which celebrated her as its first alumna to win the prize. U of T president Melanie Woodin called it "a very proud moment for our global alumni community."

The prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million, and will be presented in Stockholm on Dec. 10.