Anne Carson, the Canadian essayist, poet and translator who just won the 2026 Nobel Prize in literature, has a surprising Dallas connection.
Her first book of criticism, Eros the Bittersweet, which was initially released in 1986, is now published by the Dalkey Archive Press, which is owned by local independent publisher Deep Vellum.
“We at Deep Vellum and Dalkey Archive Press are thrilled to congratulate Anne on this enormous achievement, a much-deserved capstone to one of the most daring and distinguished careers in contemporary letters,” the publisher said in a Thursday news release.
The nonfiction work is a look at the pleasure and pain of desire in ancient Greek literature and develops “many of the ideas that would define her later career,” according to the publisher.
The Nobel committee honored Carson “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature,” according to the Thursday announcement.
The Toronto-born Carson, 76, draws on themes from classical Greek and Roman literature, modern influences and personal experience for genre-blending works that have ranged from translations of ancient Greek poets to collaborations with dancers and musicians, including Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed. Her books include the verse novel Autobiography of Red, as well as Men in the Off Hours, a collection of poetry and prose that won Canada’s Griffin Prize for poetry in 2001, and Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, which compares Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy.
“Almost all her literary production has centered upon the intersection between the philologist’s obsession with words and the poet’s desire for new meaning,” said Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel Literature Committee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.