The Nobel Prize for literature this year has been awarded to a French writer whose name may not be well known in Albuquerque but who may be in the next booth over next time you visit the Frontier Restaurant, enjoying un cinnamon roll gigantique.

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has published more than 40 novels, children’s books and essays, of which only 12 have been translated into English, The  New York Times reported this morning. He is regarded as one of France’s greatest living writers, though is hardly known in the United States, several news reports have noted.

Much of his work, authorities say, stems from his experiences in Mexico, Central America and North Africa and is “suffused with a quest for lost culture and new spiritual realities,” the NYT wrote.

Le Clézio, 68, has taught at numerous universities around the world, including the University of New Mexico, the Nobel academy in Stockholm said in a news release today.

It also said he and his wife, since the 1990s, have split their time between Albuquerque and his childhood homelands of Mauritius and Nice, France.

The Los Angeles Times said today “Le Clézio spends most of his time in Albuquerque and avoids public life, preferring to travel to remote and rugged places and indulge his fascination with the environment.”

The story went on to quote the French newspaper Le Monde as describing him as a tall, blond man with the “photogenic allure of an elegant cowboy.”

Le Clézio was a visiting professor at UNM on three occasions, university spokesman Benson Hendrix told the Independent today. In 1977-78 and 1984-85, he taught modern and classical languages. The author returned in 1992-93 and had the PNM endowed chair for foreign languages and literature, Hendrix said.

The committee that awarded the prize today called him an “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization.” Among his books available in English are “Fever” (1966), “The  Flood” (1967) and “Terra Amata” (1969).