Mozambique Author Wins US Literary Prize

FILE - Mozambique's writer Mia Couto gives a speech after he receives the Camoes Prize at the National Palace of Queluz, in Queluz, near Lisbon, June 10, 2013.

Mozambican author António Emílio Leite (Mia) Couto has been awarded a $50,000 prize for lifetime achievement.

The 58-year-old fiction writer and poet is this year's winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. The honor was announced Friday by the University of Oklahoma and World Literature Today, a magazine based at the school.

Couto is the first Mozambican author to win the Neustadt Prize. He is considered to be one of the most important writers in Mozambique, and his works have been published in more than 20 languages.

Cuoto's books include the novels Sleepwalking Land and The Last Flight of the Flamingo and a short story collection, Voices Made Night.

The Neustadt Prize, established in 1969, is awarded every two years. Previous winners include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz and Elizabeth Bishop.