Gamoneda, 76, who was born in the northern city of Oviedo, inherited his love for literature from his father, a known modernist writer in literary circles.

Spanish poet Antonio Gamoneda has won the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s top literary award.

The prize was announced Thursday by a panel of Spanish and Latin American academics led by Culture Minister Carmen Calvo and Victor Garcia de la Concha, president of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. It carries a $90,430 cash award.

Gamoneda, 76, who was born in the northern city of Oviedo, inherited his love for literature from his father, a known modernist writer in literary circles.

He started to have his works published in Spain in 1960, with the collection of poems Sublevacion inmovil. Other poetry volumes describing his favorite themes throughout his entire work, including pain, memory and darkness, are Descripcion de la mentira, Leon de la mirada and Blues Castellano, which were translated into many languages.

His biggest success came in the late 1980s, when his book Edad was awarded the Spanish national Poetry Prize. In the 1990s he wrote Libro del frio and Libro de los venenos.

Gamoneda has also made a name for himself as a translator of other authors. He has translated, among others, works by Turkish best-known poet Nazim Hikmet and France’s Mallarme into Spanish.

Since 1980, Antonio Gamoneda heads the Sierra-Pambley Foundation, founded in 1877, which works for the education of workers and farmers.