Although she didn't start her career as a writer until she was in her 50s, in 1993 E. Annie Proulx became the first woman to win the prestigious PEN/Faulkner book award, for her debut novel Postcards. The following year she won a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for her novel The Shipping News. She is also the author of Accordion Crimes (1996) and several short stories.

Extra credit: Proulx's name is pronounced proo... Her 1997 short story "Brokeback Mountain" was made into a 2005 film starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.