His last major work, "El hereje" (The heretic), a tribute to Valladolid, was published in 1998 and was awarded the National Fiction Prize. When receiving the award, the author stated that at 79 years of age he "had hung up his writing tackle." At the beginning of the millennium, the Miguel Delibes Chair was founded. The chair has its seat at the universities of New York and Valladolid, and has as its objectives to promote the study of contemporary Spanish literature, make this literature known in the United States and disseminate it through new technologies.