Canadian writer Margaret Atwood has been named as the winner of this year's Prince of Asturias Literary Prize.

Atwood, who won the Booker Prize for 'The Blind Assassin' in 2000, is not only a prolific novelist and poet, but also a staunch feminist and ardent human rights campaigner.

Born in Ottawa in 1939, Atwood has worked closely with Amnesty International on a number of campaigns, notably in defending the territorial rights of the Mohawk Indians.

Her novels include 'The Edible Woman' (1969), 'Lady Oracle' (1977), 'Life Before Man' (1980), 'The Handmaid's Tale' (1985), a ferocious critique of a totalitarian society, 'Cat's Eye' (1988), not forgetting 'Surfacing' (1972), that was included in Harold Blomm's book on the best works of Western literature.

Atwood, who writes in both English and French, has been translated into more than thirty other languages.