Rebecca Shaw rethinks success after Anne Carson’s Nobel win

The Sansasyonel - International (English) · Oct 22, 2026 · 1m

For years, writer Rebecca Shaw compared her artistic journey with the dream of a major success. She didn’t fully commit to a writing career until around 30 and has spent 14 years trying to create a steady living from it. Tales of late achievements once comforted her. But after seeing 76-year-old author Anne Carson win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Shaw began to see things differently. Carson’s first book of poems was published when she was 42. After winning the MacArthur Fellowship in 2000, Carson said that notoriety made little difference, apart from small perks like being met at airports…