Francine Prose (born April 1, 1947) is an

American novelist This is a list of novelists from the United States, listed with titles of a major work for each. This is not intended to be a list of every American (born U.S. citizen, naturalized citizen, or long-time resident alien) who has published a novel. ...

, short story writer, essayist, and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center.

Life and career

Born in Brooklyn, Prose graduated from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

in 1968. She received the PEN Translation Prize in 1988 and received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1991. Prose's novel ''The Glorious Ones'' has been adapted into a musical with the same title by

Lynn Ahrens Lynn Ahrens (born October 1, 1948) is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Awa ...

and

Stephen Flaherty Stephen Flaherty (born September 18, 1960) is an American composer of musical theatre and film. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writer Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals ''Ragtime'', whi ...

. It ran at the

Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a Broadway theater in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Operated by the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), the Beaumont is the only Broad ...

at Lincoln Center in New York City in the fall of 2007. In March 2007, Prose was chosen to succeed American writer Ron Chernow beginning in April to serve a one-year term as president of PEN American Center, a New York City-based literary society of writers, editors and translators that works to advance literature, defend free expression, and foster international literary fellowship. In March 2008, Prose ran unopposed for a second one-year term as PEN American Center president. That same month, London artist Sebastian Horsley had been denied entry into the United States and PEN president Prose subsequently invited Horsley to speak at PEN's annual festival of international literature in New York at the end of April 2008. She was succeeded by philosopher and novelist

Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah wa ...

as president of PEN in April 2009. Prose sat on the board of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own Award. Her novel, ''Blue Angel'', a satire about

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

on college campuses, was a finalist for the National Book Award. One of her novels, ''

Household Saints ''Household Saints'' is a 1993 film starring Tracey Ullman, Vincent D'Onofrio and Lili Taylor. It is based on the novel by Francine Prose and directed by Nancy Savoca. The film explores the lives of three generations of Italian-American women ov ...

'', was adapted for a movie by Nancy Savoca. Prose received the Rome Prize in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

In 2010, Prose received the Washington University International Humanities Medal. The medal, awarded biennially and accompanied by a cash prize of $25,000, is given to honor a person whose humanistic endeavors in scholarship, journalism, literature, or the arts have made a difference in the world. Other winners include Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk in 2006, journalist Michael Pollan in 2008, and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns in 2012.

American PEN criticism

During the 2015 controversy regarding American PEN's decision to honor ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...

'' with its annual Freedom of Expression Courage Award, she, alongside Michael Ondaatje,

Teju Cole Teju Cole (born June 27, 1975) is a Nigerian-American writer, photographer, and art historian. He is the author of a novella ''Every Day Is for the Thief'' (2007), a novel ''Open City'' (2011), an essay collection ''Known and Strange Things'' (20 ...

, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner and

Taiye Selasi Taiye Selasi (born 2 November 1979) is a British-American writer and photographer. Of Nigerian and Ghanaian origin, she describes herself as a "local" of Accra, Berlin, New York and Rome. Early life and education Taiye Selasi was born in Lond ...

, withdrew from the group's annual awards gala and signed a letter dissociating themselves from the award, stating that although

the murders ''The Murders'' is a Canadian police procedural drama television series created by Damon Vignale. Starring Jessica Lucas and produced by Muse Entertainment in conjunction with Rogers Media, the series debuted on Citytv and FX in Canada on Ma ...

were "sickening and tragic," they did not believe that ''Charlie Hebdo''s work deserved an award. The letter was soon co-signed by more than 140 other PEN members. Prose published an article in '' The Guardian'' justifying her position, stating that: "the narrative of the ''Charlie Hebdo'' murders—white Europeans killed in their offices by Muslim extremists—is one that feeds neatly into the cultural prejudices that have allowed our government to make so many disastrous mistakes in the Middle East." Prose was criticized for her views by Katha Pollitt, Alex Massie, Michael C. Moynihan, Nick Cohen and others, most notably by Salman Rushdie, who in a letter to PEN described Prose and the five other authors who withdrew as fellow travellers of "fanatical Islam, which is highly organised, well funded, and which seeks to terrify us all, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, into a cowed silence."

''The New Yorker'' controversy

On January 7, 2018, in a Facebook post,Post
by Francine Prose, Facebook. January 7, 2018. Accessed January 18, 2018. Prose accused the author Sadia Shepard of plagiarizing Mavis Gallant's "The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street", which had appeared in '' The New Yorker'' on December 14, 1963. Shepard's piece had been published online by ''The New Yorker'' and was scheduled for release in the January 8, 2018 issue. Though Shepard's story reimagines the original in a new context, with added detail and altered character dynamics, Prose contended that the similarities between the two stories constituted theft, writing in her original post that the story is a "scene by scene, plot-turn by plot-turn, gesture by gesture, line-of-dialogue by line-of-dialogue copy—the only major difference being that the main characters are Pakistanis in Connecticut during the Trump era instead of Canadians in post-WWII Geneva." In a letter to ''The New Yorker'', Prose maintained her original stance, asking, "Is it really acceptable to change the names and the identities of fictional characters and then claim the story as one's own original work? Why, then, do we bother with copyrights?" Responding to Prose's accusation, Shepard acknowledged her debt to Gallant but maintained that her use of Gallant's story of self-exile in postwar Europe to explore the immigrant experience of Pakistani Muslims in today's America was justified.

Bibliography

Novels

* 1973: ''Judah the Pious'', Atheneum (Macmillan reissue 1986 ) * 1974: ''The Glorious Ones'', Atheneum (Harper Perennial reissue 2007 ) * 1977: ''Marie Laveau'', Berkley Publishing Corp. () * 1978: ''Animal Magnetism'', G.P. Putnam's Sons. () * 1981: ''Household Saints'', St. Martin's Press () * 1983: ''Hungry Hearts'', Pantheon () * 1986: ''Bigfoot Dreams'', Pantheon () * 1992: ''Primitive People'', Farrar, Straus & Giroux () * 1995: ''Hunters and Gatherers'', Farrar, Straus & Giroux () * 2000: '' Blue Angel'', Harper Perennial () * 2003: '' After'', HarperCollins () * 2005: ''A Changed Man'', HarperCollins () – winner of the 2006

Dayton Literary Peace Prize The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point ...

for fiction * 2007: ''Bullyville'', HarperTeen () * 2008: ''Goldengrove'', HarperCollins () * 2009: ''Touch'', HarperTeen () * 2011: ''My New American Life'', Harper () * 2012: ''The Turning'', HarperTeen () * 2014: ''Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932'', Harper () * 2016: ''Mister Monkey'', Harper, () * 2021: ''The Vixen,'' Harper ()

Short story collections

* 1988: ''Women and Children First'', Pantheon () * 1997: ''Guided Tours of Hell'', Metropolitan () * 1998: ''The Peaceable Kingdom'', Farrar Straus & Giroux ()

Children's picture books

* 2005: ''Leopold, the Liar of Leipzig'', illustrated by Einav Aviram, HarperCollins (),

Nonfiction

* 2002: ''The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired'', HarperCollins () * 2003: ''Gluttony'', Oxford University Press () – second in a series about the seven deadly sins * 2003: ''Sicilian Odyssey'',

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

() * 2005: ''

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

: Painter of Miracles'', Eminent Lives () * 2006: '' Reading Like a Writer'', HarperCollins () * 2008: ''The Photographs of Marion Post Wolcott''. Washington, DC: Library of Congress () * 2009: '' Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife'', HarperCollins () * 2015: '' Peggy Guggenheim – The Shock of the Modern'', Yale University Press () * 2020: '' Titian's

Pietro Aretino Pietro Aretino (, ; 19 or 20 April 1492 – 21 October 1556) was an Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist and blackmailer, who wielded influence on contemporary art and politics. He was one of the most influential writers of his time and a ...

'' (with

Xavier F. Salomon Xavier F. Salomon (born 1979) is a British art critic and both Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at the Frick Collection in New York City, New York. Born in Rome to an English mother and Danish father, he has British citizenship an ...

The Frick Collection The Frick Collection is an art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection (normally at the Henry Clay Frick House, currently at the Frick Madison) features Old Master paintings and European fine and decorative arts, including works by B ...

() * 2022: '' Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth'', Yale University Press

Book reviews

*March 13, 2005: "'The Glass Castle': Outrageous Misfortune": ''

The Glass Castle ''The Glass Castle'' is a 2005 memoir by American author Jeannette Walls. Walls recounts her dysfunctional and nomadic yet vibrant upbringing, emphasizing her resilience and her father's attempts toward redemption. Despite her family's flaws, t ...

'', by

Jeannette Walls Jeannette Walls (born April 21, 1960) is an American author and journalist widely known as former gossip columnist for MSNBC.com and author of ''The Glass Castle'', a memoir of the nomadic family life of her childhood. Published in 2005, it had b ...

*May 22, 2005: "'Oh the Glory of It All': Poor Little Rich Boy": ''

Oh the Glory of It All ''Oh the Glory of it All'' (2005), is a work of non-fiction by Sean Wilsey, published by Penguin Press. A humorous coming-of-age memoir, the book chronicles Wilsey's troubled years growing up in a wealthy and prominent San Francisco San ...

'', by Sean Wilsey *June 12, 2005: "'Marriage, a History': Lithuanians and Letts Do It", ''Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, Or How Love Conquered Marriage'', by Stephanie Coontz * December 4, 2005: "Slayer of Taboos", ''The New York Times'': ''D. H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider'', by John Worthen * April 2, 2006: "Science Fiction", ''The New York Times'': ''The Book About Blanche and Marie'', by Per Olov Enquist * July 9, 2006: "The Folklore of Exile", ''The New York Times'': '' Last Evenings on Earth'', by Roberto Bolaño * December 2008: "More is More: Roberto Bolaño's Magnum Opus", ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'': ''

2666 ''2666'' is the last novel by Roberto Bolaño. It was released in 2004, a year after Bolaño's death. It is over 1100 pages long in Spanish, and almost 900 in its English translation, it is divided into five parts. An English-language translat ...

'', by Roberto Bolaño * December/January 2010: "Altar Ego", '' Bookforum'': ''

Ayn Rand and the World She Made ''Ayn Rand and the World She Made'' is a 2009 biography of Russian-American philosopher Ayn Rand by Anne C. Heller. Background Heller was a journalist who first heard of Rand while working as a magazine editor. Writer Suze Orman gave Heller a c ...

'', by Anne C. Heller

Awards

* 1974: National Jewish Book Award for ''Judah the Pious'' *1998: National Jewish Book Award for ''You Never Know: A Legend of the Lamed-vavniks.'' Illustration by

Mark Podwal Mark Podwal (born June 8, 1945) is an artist, author, filmmaker and physician. He may have been best known initially for his drawings on The New York Times Op-Ed page. In addition, he is the author and illustrator of numerous books. Most of these ...

Notes

External links

* *
2007 Interview
by Betsy Sussler with

A. M. Homes Amy M. Homes (pen name A. M. Homes; born December 18, 1961) is an American writer best known for her controversial novels and unusual short stories, which feature extreme situations and characters. Notably, her novel ''The End of Alice'' (1996) i ...

and Francine Prose, ''

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

'', 16 September 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Prose, Francine 1947 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers American women novelists American women short story writers Bard College faculty Harper's Magazine people Harvard Advocate alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Novelists from Iowa Novelists from New York (state) Radcliffe College alumni Writers from Brooklyn American women academics Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters