Canadian poet and author Anne Carson wins Nobel Prize in Literature

JUST IN: Canadian poet and author Anne Carson wins the Nobel Prize in Literature, praised for her 'bold and inventive' work in playful dialogue with the classical tradition.

Anne Carson just won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Canadian poet, essayist and translator got the call from Stockholm this morning, honoured for work the Academy called bold and inventive, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition. Here she is at the announcement, the woman who's been the bookmakers' favourite for about two decades finally getting the thing.

If you don't know her, Carson is the one who takes ancient Greek, Sappho, Euripides, all of it, and makes it feel like it was written last Tuesday. Her books don't sit neatly on a shelf. Poetry, essay, novel in verse, sometimes all three at once.

And there's a bigger story inside this one. The Swedish Academy has spent years fending off accusations of being too European and too male. Handing the medal to a Canadian woman who writes like nobody else alive answers both charges in one move.

The favourite finally won, and for once nobody's arguing.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.