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Madrid (dpa) - Mexican author Sergio Pitol was Thursday awarded the 2005 Cervantes Prize, considered the Nobel literature prize of the Spanish-speaking world, Culture Minister Carmen Calvo announced in Madrid.
Pitol, 72, one of the foremost authors in Latin America, is renowned for his short stories, novels and translations.
From his home in Veracruz, Mexico, the author told El Pais daily he felt "truly emotional" and that the prize was "the best thing that has happened to me in my literary life"
Born in 1933 in Puebla, Mexico, Pitol served as cultural attache at Mexican embassies in Warsaw, Paris and Budapest before becoming Mexico's ambassador to Czechoslovakia in the 1980s.
Since 1967, he has continuously published his own novels, short stories and essays, inspired largely by his own experiences.
"Almost all the events I have lived through permeate my stories," he once said.
Credited with raising the profile of authors such as Anton Chekhov and Henry James in his native Mexico, Pitol is also a passionate advocate of Central European authors.
Of his own works, Pitol once said they "are fed by adventures and eccentricities".
In interviews he emphasises the restorative nature of literature, which helped him as a child to recover from the loss of his parents and a severe case of malaria.
His most famous work "El arte de la fuga" (The art of flight) was published in 1996.
Awarded annually by the Spanish culture ministry since 1976 to an author "who has contributed to the enrichment of the Hispanic literary legacy", the Cervantes Prize is worth 90,152 euros (105,000 dollars).
Copyright 2005 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
