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MADRID: Chile's 97-year-old poet Nicanor Parra has won the Cervantes Prize, the culture ministry said Thursday, the oldest person to win the leading literary award for works in Spanish.
The prize honours a writer's life work and it carries with it a cash award of 125,000 euros ($170,000).
It will be handed out on April 23, in recognition of the anniversary of the death in 1616 of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the author of “Don Quixote” and Spain's greatest literary figure.
Parra, who is also a mathematician, is considered to be one of the most important poets writing in the Spanish language.
He describes himself as an “anti-poet” because his works reject the traditional refinement of most Latin American literature and instead use a more colloquial tone.
Parra published his first collection of verse, “Cancionero sin nombre” or “Unnamed song book”, in 1937 he won Chile's National Literature Award twice -- in 1969 and 1981.
Born on September 4, 1914 in the southern Chilean town of San Fabian de Alico, Parra comes from a prolific family of musicians, writers and artists.
His late sister Violeta Parra is considered to be one of the most important folk singers to have ever emerged in Chile.
The Cervantes Prize, which is administered by Spain's culture ministry, is traditionally granted to Spanish and Latin American authors in alternating years.
Last year's winner was Spanish novelist Ana Maria Matute, only the third woman to win the award since in was created in 1975. Previous winners include Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina, Peruvian-born Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes of Mexico.
