Since the late 1950s he has produced poetry, novels, short stories, critical essays, and editorials. He earned international fame as a Swedish writer with literary awards such as the "Prix International Charles Veillon des Essais" in 1983, the "Heinrich Steffens Preis" in 1986, "Una Vita per la Litteratura" in 1989, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for poetry in 1994, and several others. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.