Portuguese author Helia Correia won the 2015 Camoes prize for literature, one of the most prestigious awards given to Portuguese speaking writers, Portugal's Secretary of State of Culture Jorge Barreto Xavier said in a statement on Wednesday.Helia Correia was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1949 and wrote her first novel, "O Separar das Aguas", in 1981.

The Camoes prize was launched by Portugal and Brazil in 1989 and has a monetary value of 100,000 euros (113,900 US dollars).

The Camoes prize, named after Luis de Camoes, who is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet, has been given to 10 other Portuguese authors including Miguel Torga, Jose Saramago, the 1998 Nobel prize in Literature laureate, and Agustina-Bessa Luis.