Peruvian author and journalist Mario Vargas Llosa, 74, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Nobel academy announced Thursday. The Spanish speaking author wrote more than 30 novels, plays and essays such as "Conversation in the Cathedral" and "The Green House."

Vargas Llosa, who once ran for president in Peru, is the first South American winner of the prestigious and important award since Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez won in 1982. 

The Nobel academy said deserved the prize because he mapped the "structure of power and for his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat," the AP reports. 

The academy has gotten under fire for awarding mostly Europeans with the $1,5 million Nobel prize in the past 10 years. Last year's award went to German Herta Mueller. 

Read more on the Nobel academy's website.