India, Oct. 9 -- When Anne Carson was informed that she had won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, she was sitting in her kitchen in Reykjavik, eating crackers, drinking tea and reading the London Review of Books. She had noticed that the floor needed sweeping and had got up to do it. Meanwhile, her phone kept ringing, which she repeatedly switched off. Her husband and longtime collaborator, Robert Currie, eventually persuaded her to return the call.

"It's pretty crazy," she told the Nobel interviewer. "I think you're all insane."

Asked how she intended to celebrate, Carson said she and Currie would walk in the woods to avoid answering the telephone. They wanted to hear the quiet. She had already begun thinking about giving away the pr...