Logi Einarsson says Iceland should honour Anne Carson

Culture Minister Logi Einarsson says he wants to recognise Nobel laureate Anne Carson and highlight the contribution of artists with foreign backgrounds to Icelandic cultural life, mbl.is reports.

Carson, a Canadian-Icelandic writer, received the Nobel Prize in Literature yesterday. Einarsson called the award a great honour for her and said he was delighted for her.

Carson, 76, was born in Canada in 1950 and has been an Icelandic citizen since 2022. She has spent part of each year in Iceland for a long time and was in the country when she heard about the award.

Known for her poetry, essays and translations of ancient Greek literature, Carson has written works including Autobiography of Red and The Beauty of the Husband. She received the Vigdís International Prize in 2023.

Einarsson said artists with foreign backgrounds enrich Icelandic culture and that their circumstances deserve closer attention. He said the ministry would contact Carson once the immediate attention around the prize had subsided, to express its respect and gratitude.

Einarsson said he had not previously known much about Carson’s work but planned to read more. Carson is the second Icelandic citizen to win the Nobel Prize in Literature; Halldór Kiljan Laxness received it in 1955.