Beware the Man Whose Handwriting Sways Like a Reed in the Wind

WINNER OF THE 2026 NOBEL PRIZE

Anne Carson on handwriting, Catullus and the art of Cy Twombly, and on brain science and being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease

This is an essay about hands and handwriting. I think of handwriting as a way to organize thought into shapes. I like shapes. I like organizing them. But because of recent neurological changes in my brain I find shapes fall apart on me. My responsibility to forms can’t be gracefully fulfilled. Nonetheless, I offer the following in th...