Correia was awarded the €100,000 prize - the most important of its kind - by Brazil's minister of culture, Juca Ferreira, and Portugal's secretary of state for culture, Jorge Barreto Xavier, following a unanimous decision in June by a jury made up of literary figures and critics from various Portuguese-language countries.


"I want to dedicate this prize to Greece, without which we would have nothing," Correia said. "Long live Greece!"


The writer had previously said that she thought the "probabilities of literary recognition" for her were low.


According to the president of the jury at the time of the announcement, Correia was chosen because her work has "a universal aspect, because of the way it explores human nature ... the attention it gives to the real world".


Correia, born in Lisbon in 1949, has written novels, novellas and short stories, as well as poetry and drama.


The Camões Prize has been awarded annually since 1989. The first went to Miguel Torga of Portugal.