Spanish novelist Antonio Muñoz Molina was named Wednesday as this year's recipient of Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. The 57-year-old writer and former director of the Cervantes Institute in New York was honored for "the depth and brilliance with which he has narrated relevant fragments of his country's history, crucial episodes of the contemporary world and meaningful aspects of his personal experience," the jury said, and EFE reports.

The author, who began his career as a columnist and is a full member of the Royal Spanish Academy, also won France's Prix Femina for best foreign novel in 1998 for "Plenilunio" (Full Moon). Read more here.