Peruvian poet wins Chile's Neruda Prize

Santiago: Peruvian poet Antonio Cisneros has been named the winner of the 2010 Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Prize.

The Chilean government confers the prize in honour of the country`s late Nobel laureate.

Chilean Culture Minister Luciano Cruz-Coke chaired the jury.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera will present the $30,000 prize to Cisneros in a ceremony July 12, marking the 106th anniversary of Neruda`s birth.

Cisneros is "a poet with notable influence over the younger generations" in Latin America, the jury said in a statement Tuesday.

Cisneros said he had two personal encounters with the Nobel laureate. First at a birthday party for Neruda and second during a writers` conference on Isla Negra, where Neruda (1904-1973) kept a vacation home and where he and wife Matilde Urrutia are buried.

--IANS/EFE