Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

Francine Prose is a New York Times-winning prolific writer of 18 works of fiction, essays, and translated works. The recipient of many prestigious grants and awards, including the Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, Prose has followed a parallel career in teaching creative writing. Prose published her first novel, Judah the Pious, in 1973, for which she won the 1974 Jewish Book Council Award. A mythical story set in the Poland of legend, the work was praised for its allegorical themes and framed narrative structure. Like Judah the Pious, Prose’s other earliest works are set in the past and contain elements of fantasy and Jewish history and legend. They also examine Jewish identity through the ages. After the 1980s, there was a shift in Prose’s work. While it still contained elements of fantasy and the supernatural, the settings grew contemporary. In an interview with Harvard Magazine, Prose notes that after the Raegan-Bush era in American politics, “I was horrified by what was happening around me. My work got a lot more contemporary, a lot more political” (“Prolific Writer Francine Prose.” Harvard Magazine, 2010). Blue Angel, her 2000 novel for which she received a National Book Award nomination, explores the complex relationship between a middle-aged college professor and his young student.