Today the Princess of Austurias Foundation announced that its 2016 Princess of Asturias Prize, Spain's most prestigious award for literature, has been awarded to Richard Ford, whose previous winners include Mario Vargas Llosa, John Banville, Camilo Jose Cela, Margaret Atwood, and Arthur Miller. The jury cited Ford's work as "part of the great tradition of the 20th century American novel," saying that his books are "defined by an ironic, minimalist sense of epic."
Ford, a native Mississippian, has visited Square Books on numerous occasions, including on July 4, 1995, with his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Independence Day, and most recently in 2014 with the publication of Let Me Be Frank with You.