Autobiography of Red

Anne Carson is, for me, the most exciting poet writing in English today. Autobiography of Red is a wonderful, mongrel work, a strange and ambitious bridge between classical texts and contemporary autobiographical poetryHer work is full of moments of startling originality and beauty. The poems play with character and plot, myth and magic; they are rich with attitude and wit and the undertow of grief. If she was a prose writer she would instantly be recognised as a genius * Times Literary Supplement *Anne Carson is a daring, learned, unsettling writer. Autobiography of Red, which perhaps comes closest to representing the range of her voice and gifts, is a spellbinding achievementI’m a big fan of her work… There’s a joy in encountering a mind that takes nothing for granted… She pinpoints the collision of oracle and anachronismLike all of Anne Carson’s writing, this book is amazing - I haven’t discovered any writing in years that’s so marvellously disturbing. I just feel so happy that she’s around – Alice MunroHer work is full of moments of startling originality and beauty. The poems play with character and plot, myth and magic; they are rich with attitude and wit and the undertow of grief. If she was a prose writer she would instantly be recognised as a genius – Colm Tóibín * Times Literary Supplement *Anne Carson has created, from fragments of the Greek poet Stesichoros, a profound love story…forty-seven compulsively readable long-lined poems of intense cinematic detail. Carson writes in language any poet would kill for: sensuous and funny, poignant, musical and tender, brilliantly lighted – Ruth Padel * New York Times Book Review *Anne Carson is a daring, learned, unsettling writer. Autobiography of Red, which perhaps comes closest to representing the range of her voice and gifts, is a spellbinding achievement – Susan Sontag

Anne Carson was born in Canada and has been a professor of Classics for over thirty years. Her awards and honours include the T. S. Eliot Prize, a Lannan Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Prize, on two occasions, fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, and the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature 2020.