Writer Francine Prose (pictured) has been awarded the Washington University International Humanities Medal, a biennial award that includes a $25,000 prize.

Prose accepted her award with an address titled, “Ten Things Art Can Do.” Only three individuals have won this award, including  novelist Orhan Pamuk (2006) and journalist Michael Pollan (2008).

Prose currently serves as president of the PEN American Center and a visiting professor at Bard College. Her first novel, Judah the Pious was published in 1973. In 2009 she released two titles, the YA novel Touch and the nonfiction book Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife.