MADRID (AP) — The Spanish government said Thursday that Catalan poet Joan Margarit has won the 2019 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor.

Margarit, who is also an architect, has published over 20 volumes of poetry — mainly in Catalan but also in Spanish. The 81-year-old has won several awards for his verse, including the Pablo Neruda prize in Chile.

Catalan is the language spoken along with Spanish in Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia.

The award for Margarit comes amid an increase in tensions in Catalonia over its separatist movement.

The jury said that Margarit “has enriched both the Spanish and the Catalan language and represents the plurality of our culture.”

The 125,000-euro ($137,600) award generally alternates between Spanish and Latin American writers.

Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale won in 2018.

The prizes are presented each April 23 on the anniversary of the death in 1616 of Miguel de Cervantes, author of "Don Quixote," in a ceremony attended by King Felipe VI.