Mexican author Jose Emillio Pacheco, shown Sunday at the International Book Fair in Guadalajara, Mexico, has won the Cervantes Prize. (Carlos Jasso/Associated Press)

Veteran Mexican poet and novelist Jose Emilio Pacheco has won the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award for writing in Spanish.

Pacheco, 70, is author of award-winning poetry collections such as No me preguntas cómo pasa el tiempo (Don't Ask Me How the Time Goes By) and El silencio de la luna (The Silence of the Moon). He published his first book of poetry at age 20 and has since released more than 15 collections.

A prolific essayist and literary critic, he also has written short stories and novels such as La sangre de Medusa (Blood of Medusa) and Las batallas en el desierto (Battles in the Desert).

The Cervantes prize, with a cash award of the equivalent of $198,700 Cdn, honours a writer's entire body of work. Pacheco's win was announced Monday in Madrid.

"He's an exceptional poet of daily life, with a depth, a freedom of thought, an ability to create his own world, an ironic distance from reality when it's necessary and a linguistic use .... that is impeccable," juror Pascual Rodriguez said in his citation.

Pacheco, who lives and teaches in Mexico City, is considered one of Mexico's most respected writers, on a par with Octavio Paz and Alfonso Reyes.

He has translated works by Samuel Beckett, Yevgeny Yevtuschenko and Albert Einstein into Spanish.

Previous Latin American winners of the prize include:

• Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina.
• Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru.
• Carlos Fuentes of Mexico.

With files from The Associated Press