Cheng Ching-wen (鄭清文, CNA file photo)

Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) Award-winning Taiwanese author Cheng Ching-wen (鄭清文) passed away on Saturday at the age of 85, a friend and longtime colleague told CNA.

Wei Shu-chen (魏淑貞), editor-in-chief of Taiwan Interminds Publishing, said she received a call from Cheng's daughter Saturday asking her to help pass on the news that the writer had died.

Local media reports have pointed to a heart attack as the cause of death, but this has not been confirmed by any of Cheng's family or friends.

Cheng, who published his first book in 1958, was a winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, a prestigious literary award, in 1999 and won Taiwan's 9th National Award of Art in the novelist category in 2005.

He published novels, short stories, and works for children during his career. Some of his most notable works include "Three-Legged Horse," a collection of 12 stories available in both Chinese and English, "The White Period," and "The Outsiders."

(By Chiang Pei-ling and Kuan-lin Liu)
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