Proulx wins Library of Congress Prize
Annie Proulx, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Shipping News” and the short story “Brokeback Mountain,” has been named the recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.
The author will be presented with the award at the 2018 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 1.
“E. Annie Proulx has given us monumental sagas and keen-eyed, skillfully wrought stories,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement. “Throughout her writing, she succeeds in capturing the wild, woolly heart of America, from its screwball wit to its every last detail. She is an American original.”
“This high honor came as a shock to me,” said Proulx, who lives in Port Townsend, Wash. “My writing has examined the lives of unimportant people — poor people plagued with bad luck, financial and personal troubles ... not the kind of characters to be graced with notice by the Library of Congress. And yet somehow it has happened. I want to believe the people in my writing will step up with me to receive this award, for they are as real as history.”
Proulx’s most recent novel is “Barkskins,” which The Chronicle named one of the best books of 2016. “Brokeback Mountain” (1997) was adapted into the 2005 Academy Award-winning film.
Past winners of the Library of Congress prize include Marilynne Robinson, E.L. Doctorow, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison and Isabel Allende.