Anne Carson Age, Husband, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Anne Carson

• Anne Carson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

• Her father, Robert Carson was a banker so she grew up in several small Canadian towns.

• While attending Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School, Ontario, Carson received extra Latin lessons from a teacher during her lunch breaks. These lessons helped her in gaining knowledge of classical languages.

• In an interview, Anne revealed that in 1965, while living in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Carson found a book of poems by the ancient Greet poet Sappho by Willis Barnstone, at a shopping mall in Hamilton. She added that the book sparked her interest in ancient Greek literature and translation.

• In 1968, Carson enrolled at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. She became frustrated with some compulsory courses and left university twice during her first two years. She briefly worked in graphic arts before returning to her studies.

• In 1972, she married her first husband and used the surname Giacomelli during their marriage. In an interview, she shared that her relationship with her first husband influenced some of her writing about love, separation, and personal loss.

• After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto, she earned a Master of Arts degree in classics, while continuing her study of ancient Greek literature and language.

• In the late 1970s, Carson’s older brother, Michael, left Canada after legal trouble and spent years abroad. In an interview, Anne revealed that her brother’s disappearance became a painful part of her family history and later influenced her writing about grief and memory.

• In 1979, Carson began teaching classics at the University of Calgary.
  

  A younger age picture of Anne Carson

• In 1980, she joined Princeton University as an instructor and later became an assistant professor.

• In the same year, her first marriage ended.

• In 1981, Anne earned her PhD degree in classics from the University of Toronto.

• In 1984, she published her first book titled, Canicula di Anna. The book earned her the Quarterly Review of Literature’s Betty Colladay Award.

• In 1986, Carson published her first book of criticism, titled Eros the Bittersweet. In the book, she explored love and desire through the work of Sappho, Plato, and other ancient Greek writers.

• In the same year, she served as a Rockefeller Scholar-in-Residence at the 92nd Street T in New York, where she also taught.

• In 1987, after Princeton University denied her tenure, Carson left the university and joined Emory University, Atlanta.

• In 1988, she left Emory University and joined McGill University in Montreal, where she became Director of Graduate Studies in Classics.

• In 1992, Carson published Short Talks, a collection of briefs, experimental prose poems.

• In 1996, she won the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry and the QSPELLA A. M. L Klein Prize for poetry for Glass, Irony, and God. These awards helped bring wider recognition to her work.

• In 1997, Anne won a Pushcart Prize for her poem “Jaget.” In the same year, her mother, Margaret Carson, died. In an interview, Carson revealed that she later incorporated her grief and memories of her mother into her writing.

• In 1998, Carson published, Autobiography of Red, a verse novel that reimagine an ancient Greek myth about Herakles and Geryon. The book became one of her best-known works. She also won the QSPELLA A. M. L Klein Prize for Poetry for the book.
  

  Cover page of Autobiography of Red

• In 1999, the Modern Library included her book, Eros the Bittersweet on its Reader’s List of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th century. In the same year, Carson also became an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

• In 2000, Carson received a MacArthur Fellowship, often called a “Genius Grant.” She also published Menin the Off Hours, an experimental collection that combines short poems, essays, translations, scripts, and memorial pieces. The book included writing connected to her deceased mother.

• In the same year, her brother Michael contacted her from Copenhagen, and they planned to meet. However, he died before they could reunite.

• In 2003, she moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and joined the University of Michigan, where she taught classical studies, comparative literature, and English language and literature until 2009.

• In 2005, Canada appointed her a Member of the Order of Canada for her contribution to Canadian literature.

• In 2006, she published Grief Lessons, a collection of her translations of four plays by Euripides: Herakles, Hecuba, Hippolytus, and Alcestis. Her translation brought ancient Greek drama to contemporary English-language readers.

•  Carson and her husband first visited Iceland after the country’s banking collapse.

• In 2009, Anne Carson joined New York University (NYU) as a Distinguished Poet-in-Residence and Visiting Professor. She and her second husband, Robert Currie, also teach an annual class called Egocircus, which focuses on collaboration.

• From 2010 to 2016, she served as an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

• In 2010, Anne published Nox, an experimental memorial to her brother Michael.

• In the same year, she also served as a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the same award she had won in 2001.

• In 2011, she became a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She also contributed “Judge: The Goat at Midnight” to the Bush Theatre’s Sixty-Six Books project.

• In 2013, Carson worked as the Mohr Visiting Poet in Stanford University’s Creative Writing program.

• In the same year, she published Red Doc>, a follow-up to Autobiography of Red. She also won the Griffin Poetry Prize for Red Doc>, and became a two-time winner of the award.

• In 2014, she joined Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, as a Visiting Distinguished Writer-in-Residence. She taught classical studies and creative writing.

• In 2020, Carson won Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for Literature. The award recognized her contribution to literature and her approach to classical and contemporary writing.

• In 2021, she received the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.

• On 19 April 2022, Carson and her husband, Robert Currie received Icelandic citizenship.

• In 2023, she continued to divide her time between Iceland and other places, including the United States.

•  In an August 2024 essay in the London Review of Books, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

• In 2025, Carson appeared on The Great Lakes Suite, an album by Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics, where she narrated several poems inspired by the Great Lakes.

• In October 2026, Anne came into news after winning Nobel Prize in Literature. On 8 October 2026, Swedish Academy honoured her for her innovative writing, which engages with classical tradition which draws on classical tradition while creating new literary forms. She received the news of her award while she was in Iceland.