NEW YORK - One of Canada's greatest writers, Margaret Atwood, has been named a foreign honourary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The academy told The Associated Press on Wednesday that other foreign inductees include Italian author Roberto Calasso and British composer Peter Maxwell Davies.

The academy also announced prizes for former U.S. poet laureate Louise Glueck (gluhk), editor and author Robert Gottlieb and essayist-fiction writer William H. Gass.

The academy is an honour society based in New York and founded in 1898.