Professor Anne Carson awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

Professor Anne Carson awarded Nobel Prize in Literature Professor Anne Carson awarded Nobel Prize in Literature Friday 9 October 2026 Professor Anne Carson with Professor Rebecca Sweetman on the occasion of receiving a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University in 2014 The University of St Andrews warmly congratulates Professor Anne Carson D.Litt. (2014), on being awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, said: “Warmest congratulations to Professor Anne Carson on this richly deserved Nobel Prize in Literature. We are so honoured by her connection with the University of St Andrews, where she studied in the School of Classics in the mid-1970s under the distinguished classicist, and later Chancellor of the University, Sir Kenneth Dover FBA. “Her great gifts as a translator and writer have brought the classical world to new audiences and shown, with remarkable originality, how scholarship and creativity can enrich one another. It is a particular joy for St Andrews to see a former student and honorary graduate receive this highest literary honour.” The Nobel Prize in Literature a fitting recognition of a writer whose extraordinary work has transformed the relationship between classical scholarship and contemporary literature, bringing poetry, translation, criticism and visual art into new and unexpected combinations. Born in Toronto in 1950, Carson developed her passion for ancient Greek at school and went on to study Classics at the University of Toronto, where she completed her BA in 1974, MA in 1975 and PhD in 1981. Carson’s year at St Andrews, studying Greek metrics and working with Dover, helped deepen the classical expertise that would become such a distinctive foundation for her literary career. When the University awarded her a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa in 2014, it was noted that Dover continued to speak warmly of her, and that the two might be regarded as kindred spirits in their determination to approach the classical world with both intellectual rigour and imagination. Though Carson once came to St Andrews to study Greek, she had spent the rest of her career teaching us how to read Greek and Latin literature anew. Since her emergence as a major literary voice with Kinds of Water in 1987, Carson has produced an extraordinary body of poetry, prose, criticism and translation, including Autobiography of Red, The Beauty of the Husband, Red Doc>, Float and Wrong Norma, alongside influential translations of Sappho, Sophocles and Aeschylus. Her work has brought Classics to readers far beyond the traditional boundaries of the discipline, while refusing easy distinctions between scholarship and creativity. When St Andrews honoured her in 2014, her laureation address described her as a Classicist, translator and poet who “makes an art out of academia and academia out of art”. Today, the Nobel Prize provides the highest international recognition of that singular achievement. St Andrews is proud of its connection to Carson’s intellectual journey and delighted to celebrate this richly deserved honour. Category Awards