Nobel Prize in Literature: "This bold and boundary-crossing style is a hallmark of her writing”

Anne Carson is both a scholarly and playful writer, says a researcher.

Anne Carson sits on a large tire by the sea in Reykjavík.

Anne Carson photographed outside her home in Aegissioa in Reykjavík.

(Photo: Kjartan Thorbjoernsson / REUTERS)

Atle Christiansen Atle Christiansen Communications adviser

Presented by: Presented by: University of Agder

Published 30 October 2026 - 00:01

Anna Fürstenberg at the University of Agder is studying the poet Anne Carson.

She is not surprised that the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature has gone to the Canadian writer.

"It would have surprised me if she’d won the prize when I first started reading her 10 years ago, but not now. In recent years, she has become hugely popular. Many people read her work and have nominated her for the Nobel Prize on several occasions,” says Fürstenberg.

Portrait of Anna Fürstenberg. — “Autobiography of Red is a good introduction to her entire body of work,” says researcher Anna Fürstenberg.

Her work is available in Norwegian

Fürstenberg points out that Carson also has an academic career.

"She is trained in classical antiquity and, in her own books, engages in a dialogue with Greek myths and characters. Carson often takes her starting point from classical literature which she herself has translated from Greek into English," she says.

Her dialogue with classical literature allows Carson to move freely between the past and the present.

In the same way, she moves freely between different genres and literary forms, Fürstenberg explains.

“One and the same book by Carson can contain essays, poems, translations, and Greek mythology. This bold and boundary-crossing style is a hallmark of her writing,” she says.

Breakthrough with an autobiography

The researcher recommends that new readers start with the novel Autobiography of Red from 1998. The novel is written in verse, making it yet another of Carson’s genre-blending books.

“This was the book that brought Anne Carson to a wider audience. Despite its unusual form, it also became very popular among younger readers,” says Fürstenberg.

The book contains essays, translations, several appendices, the novel itself, and a concluding fictional interview with an ancient poet.

“Along the way, Carson transforms the mythological material into a kind of modern bildungsroman,” she says.

Nox is a book about grief

“Autobiography of Red is a good introduction to her entire body of work. Here, Carson demonstrates her playful approach to writing and makes use of the encounter between the ancient and the modern. In addition, she writes what I think is an incredibly moving portrayal of love,” says Fürstenberg.

She also recommends Nox (2010) as a good starting point for new readers of Carson. Nox is a book about grief, dedicated to Michael, Carson’s late brother.

Like other books by Carson, this one also consists of poetry, translations, and short quotations from various sources.

“Nox is a collage of images, photographs, letters, and handwritten texts, which Carson weaves together with a translation of the Roman poet Catullus,” says Fürstenberg.

Several of Anne Carson’s books have been translated into Norwegian, including versions rendered into verse:

Flyte, 2026
Albertine-økt. Poem, 2026
Korte foredrag. Poem, 2024
Rød selvbiografi. Verse translation, 2021
Glass, ironi og Gud. Verse translation, 2014

Source:

Fürstenberg, A. Två verkligheter till priset av en: Anne Carson och fragmentets estetik (Two realities for the price of one: Anne Carson and the aesthetics of the fragment), Information och Kunskap, Axel och Margaret Ax:son Johnson Stiftelse för allmännyttiga ändamål, 2019.