Francine Prose (born April 1, 1947) is an American novelist, short story writer,

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

, and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

. She is a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

, and was formerly president of PEN American Center.

Life and career

Born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, Prose graduated from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

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

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

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

. It ran at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

in New York City in the fall of 2007. In March 2007, Prose was chosen to succeed American writer

Ron Chernow Ronald Chernow (; born March 3, 1949) is an American writer, journalist, and biographer. He has written bestselling historical non-fiction biographies. Chernow won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2011 American ...

beginning in April to serve a one-year term as president of PEN American Center, a New York City-based

literary society A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of writing or a specific author. Modern literary societies typically promote research, publish newslet ...

of writers, editors and translators that works to advance literature, defend

free expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

, 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 an English-American philosopher and writer who has written about political philosophy, ethics, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah is Prof ...

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 Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

about

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

on college campuses, was a finalist for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

. One of her novels, '' Household Saints'', was adapted for a movie by Nancy Savoca. Prose received the Rome Prize in

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

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'' (; ) is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. The publication has been described as anti-racist, sceptical, secular, libertarian, and within the tradition of left-wing radicalism ...

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

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist. Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing ''The Dainty Monsters'', and then in 1970 the critically a ...

, Teju Cole, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi, withdrew from the group's annual awards gala and signed a letter dissociating themselves from the award, stating that although the murders 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 ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 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 Nicholas Cohen (born 1961) is a British journalist, author, and political commentator. He was previously a columnist for '' The Observer'' and is currently one for ''The Spectator''. Following accusations of sexual harassment, he left ''The O ...

and others, most notably by

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

, who in a letter to PEN described Prose and the five other authors who withdrew as

fellow traveller A fellow traveller (also fellow traveler) is a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member. In the early history of the Sov ...

s 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 Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

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 ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' 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 After may refer to: Literature * ''After'' (Elgar), an 1895 poem by Philip Bourke Marston set to music by Edward Elgar * ''After'' (Prose novel), a 2003 novel by Francine Prose * ''After'' (Chalifour book), a 2005 book by Canadian writer Francis ...

'', HarperCollins () * 2005: ''A Changed Man'', HarperCollins () – winner of the 2006 Dayton Literary Peace Prize 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 The seven deadly sins (also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins) function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed ...

* 2003: ''Sicilian Odyssey'',

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

() * 2005: ''

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

: 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 Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...

: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife'', HarperCollins () * 2015: ''

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemianism, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who we ...

– The Shock of the Modern'',

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

() * 2020: ''

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

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

'' (with Xavier F. Salomon), The Frick Collection () * 2022: '' Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth'',

Book reviews

*March 13, 2005: "'The Glass Castle': Outrageous Misfortune": '' The Glass Castle'', by Jeannette Walls *May 22, 2005: "'Oh the Glory of It All': Poor Little Rich Boy": '' Oh the Glory of It All'', 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 United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'': '' 2666'', by Roberto Bolaño * December/January 2010: "Altar Ego", ''

Bookforum ''Bookforum'' is an American book review magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature. After announcing that it would cease publication in December 2022, it reported its relaunch under the direction of ''The Nation'' magazine six mo ...

'': '' Ayn Rand and the World She Made'', by Anne C. Heller

Awards

* 1974:

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

for ''Judah the Pious'' *1998:

for ''You Never Know: A Legend of the Lamed-vavniks.'' Illustration by Mark Podwal

Notes

External links

* *
2007 Interview
by Betsy Sussler with A. M. Homes and Francine Prose, ''

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

'', 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 The New York Review of Books people 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