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The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday to Canadian poet Anne Carson, an essayist and classical scholar whose writings on love, desire, and despair explore themes of mysticism and antiquity from a contemporary perspective.
The Swedish Academy stated that the 76-year-old writer was awarded the prize "for her bold and creative literary output, which has created, in a playful dialogue with classical heritage, new forms of contemporary literature."
The Academy informed the Canadian writer, who currently resides in Iceland, of the good news.
Carson is famous for her book "Nox," a literary work published in 2010 in memory of her brother Michael, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances before being found dead in Denmark in 2000, according to the Academy. The book takes the form of a single sheet of paper that extends for several meters.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Literature was won by Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai "for his stunning and visionary output that reaffirms the power of art in the midst of an apocalyptic horror," according to the Academy.
Since the inception of the Nobel Prize in Literature, men and Western literature have dominated the list of winners. There are only 19 women among the 123 winners of the prize, while writers in Asian or Middle Eastern languages are few. No writer in an African language has won the prize.
The prize is accompanied by a diploma, a medal, and a cash award of 12 million kronor (about $1.2 million).
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