Nicanor Parra wins the 2011 Cervantes Prize

Chilean poet (or should we say, anti-poet?) and mathematician Nicanor Parra has won the 2011 Cervantes Prize, which honors the lifetime achievement of a writer working in the Spanish language. From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

Born into a well-known family of artists, writers and performers (including his famed folk singer sister Violeta), Parra graduated from the University of Chile and became a professor of mathematics and physics in 1938.

A year earlier, he had published his first poetry collection: Cancionero sin nombre (Unnamed Song).

He later developed a style that incorporated colloquial language and subject matter into traditional poetry and dubbed it "antipoetry."

Among his most significant works is 1954'sPoemas y antipoemas (Poems and Antipoems). In it and through his later writing, Parra experiments with mixing poetry and prose. He also mixed the speech patterns, jargon and humour of the poorer classes into his writing to show that poetry could be a common form of expression.

Parra, now 97, will receive the award in Spain on April 23, 2012, the anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' death. Read more here.