Now available from McClelland & Stewart, Anne Carson's internationally beloved novel in verse and "one of the crossover classics of contemporary poetry" (New York Times Magazine)

Award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present.
Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography he begins at the age of five. Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man name Herakles, a cavalier drifter who leaves him at the peak of infatuation. When Herakles reappears a year later, Geryon confronts again the pain of his desire and embarks on a journey that will unleash his creative imagination to its fullest extent. By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist coming to terms with the fantastic accident of who he is and unleashing his creative imagination to its fullest extent.

Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living. A former MacArthur Fellow, awards for her numerous books include the T.S. Eliot Prize and The Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Red Doc> was recently awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize and the inaugural Folio Prize. Her first full poetry collection, Short Talks, was published by Brick Books in 1992 and was presented as a new edition in 2015: SHORT TALKS: BRICK BOOKS CLASSICS 1.

Anne Carson's profile page

• Winner, QSPELL Award

Praise for Autobiography of Red:
• "A profound love story ... sensuous and funny, poignant, musical and tender." -- The New York Times Book Review
• "The most exciting poet writing in English today.... A rare talent -- brilliant and full of wit, passionate and also deeply moving." -- Michael Ondaatje
• "A novel in the shape of a poem, a classical story made contemporary -- wry, poignant, beautiful and occasionally erotic. Carson writes like an angel -- her passions recall that incandescent chronicler of love Elisabeth Smart [and] Malcolm Lowry. A wonderful book of dense, glittering prose poetry that is both timely and timeless." -- Katherine Govier, Time
• "Amazing -- I haven't discovered any writing in years so marvelously disturbing." -- Alice Munro
• "Wildly imaginative and inventive. The first dozen pages will convince anyone that Carson is an authentic and original talent." -- The Ottawa Citizen