FULL LIST: 19 women who have won Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature has brought the number of women to have received the prestigious award to 19, more than a century after Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to win it. Canadian poet, essayist and classicist Anne Carson, 76, became the latest woman to join the list after the Swedish Read More:…
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature marked the 19th time a woman had received the prestigious award, more than a century after the first female laureate, Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, was recognized in 1909. Canadian poet and classicist Anne Carson, 76, was named the laureate for her "bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature."
Carson joins a list of 19 women who have won the Literature Nobel since 1901, compared to 104 men among the 123 individual laureates. The prize has been awarded 119 times, with interruptions during the World Wars in 1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943. Only four times has the prize been shared between two laureates, most notably in 1966 when German-Swiss poet Nelly Sachs and Israeli poet Shmuel Yosef Agnon received it together.
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- FULL LIST: 19 women who have won Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901 punchng.com
- Five well-known works from Nobel literature prize winner Anne Carson winnipegfreepress.com
