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Canada's Margaret Atwood wins Spain's top literature prize
2008-06-26
MADRID (AFP) - Canadian author Margaret Atwood was on Wednesday awarded Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize for literature as "one of the most outstanding voices of contemporary fiction," the jury announced. "Margaret Atwood offers in her novels a politically committed, critical view of the world and contemporary society, while revealing extraordinary sensitivity in her copious poetical oeuvre, a genre which she cultivates with great skill," the jury said. Atwood, 68, beat 32 other nominees from 24 countries, including Britain's Ian McEwan, for the prize, worth 50,000 euros (78,000 dollars) and which she will officially receive from Crown Prince Felipe in October. The poet, novelist, literary critic and feminist won Britain's Booker Prize in 2000 for her novel "The Blind Assassin" and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction in 1985 for "The Handmaid's Tale," which was made into a 1990 film starring Robert Duvall and Natasha Richardson. Other notable works include "The Edible Woman", "The Robber Bride" and "Alias Grace." Last year's Asturias prize for literature award went to Israeli writer Amos Oz. The Asturias foundation annually hands out eight awards in the fields of communication and humanities, scientific and technical research, social science, arts, literature, international cooperation, international understanding and sport. Five other 2008 awards have already been announced. This year's arts prize went to the Youth and Children Orchestra of Venezuela, while the award for international cooperation was shared between four malaria research centres in Africa. The prize for scientific and technical research was awarded to two Japanese and three American scientists for their work in nanotechnology, and Internet search giant Google won the Communications and Humanities prize. Bulgarian-born French philosopher Tzvetan Todorov was last week awarded the Social Sciences prize.
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