Over the past 30 years, Nobel Prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, his wife and two daughters have lived in Albuquerque for long periods of time. His most recent stay ended about two months ago.

On three occasions, Le Clézio taught French at The University of New Mexico: 1977-1978; 1984-1985 and in 1992-1993, when he held the PNM endowed chair. While in New Mexico, he often worked at the UNM library and enjoyed long walks and jaunts around the state. Because of his interest in Amerindian cultures, he has many friends on area reservations, according to professor Walter Putnam, a member of the French faculty at UNM.

Putnam said Le Clézio is a disciplined writer who told him numerous times that he is comfortable writing here, in part, because of the relatively few distractions, and because of his great affection for arid landscapes.

According to Putnam, Le Clézio set one short story about a woman and a vicious dog in a New Mexico trailer park. "He finds material anywhere he goes," Putnam said, adding the story was published in a collection, but to his knowledge was never translated into English.

Unlike in France, where he is a household name, Le Clézio is not widely read in the U.S., where most of his books have been published by university presses. "We just tend not to be as open to other world literature as we could and should be," Putnam said.

He said he was thrilled to hear Le Clézio had won the prize. "I think he's deserved it for a long time. He's one of the pre-eminent writers of any culture. He has a vast understanding of cultures and recognition of their importance."