Margaret Atwood named honorary member of arts academy

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood won the UK's Booker Prize in 2000 for The Blind Assassin

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood has been named a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The celebrated novelist is the author of books including The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye and The Blind Assassin.

British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, master of the Queen's Music, has also been honoured.

The membership of the academy, founded in 1898, comprises writers, musicians, artist and architects.

Other members include cellist Yo Yo Ma, actress Meryl Streep and the directors Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese.

Italian author Roberto Calasso, Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer and Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima have also been named honorary foreign members.

Leading book editor Robert Gottlieb has also been honoured with the Distinguished Service to the Arts prize.

Gottlieb worked on classics like Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and is former editor of The New Yorker.