Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale received the Miguel de Cervantes Literature Prize 2018, the highest award for Spanish literature. Photo proceso.com.mx

HÀ NỘI — Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale has received the Miguel de Cervantes Literature Prize 2018 at the University of Alcala in Spain, the highest award for Spanish literature, in a ceremony presided over by King Felipe VI.

Vitale, 96, is known as a poet of all generations and is the fifth woman to be awarded the Cervantes Prize, which comes with prize money of 125,000 euros (US$141,200) for her poetic and intellectual career.

Greatly influenced by the Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez, Vitale is still writing today, according to a statement sent by the Embassy of Uruguay to Việt Nam News.

The jury who awarded the Cervantes Prize to Vitale on April 23 said it "recognised a poetical and intellectual trajectory of the first level" and considered the "language she uses to be one of the best known in today's poetry in Spanish".

The poet kicked off the Cervantes Week and joined the "Heritage Transfered in the Language Box" ceremony, which followed the tradition of winners with this award to contribute one of their personal impressions reaching to 1,800 boxes stored in the Cervantes Institute in Madrid. 

In the framework of the Cervantes Week, the Residencia de Estudiantes offered another tribute to the Uruguayan poet in which, under the title Words Are Nomadic, poets such as Antonio Gamoneda, Orlando Gonzalez-Esteva, Clara Janes, Aurelio Major, Javier Rodríguez Marcos and Ida Vitale read poems by the winner and their own.

On the occasion, the complete literary works of Vitale was displayed at the introduction ceremony of the Library of Cervantes,.

The Miguel de Cervantes Prize was established in 1975 and was first awarded the following year. It is considered  "the most prestigious and remunerative award given for Spanish-language literature" by the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Named after the writer of the famous Don Quixote, the Cervantes award looks to recognise the body of work of writers from any Spanish speaking nation. — VNS