The winners of the 60th Kikuchi Kan Prize were announced on the 15th, and among the many winners of this prestigious cultural prize is author Sono Ayako, not only for her work as a writer and critic, but for her work in helping the poor as well, reports the Asahi.

Little of Sono’s work is available in English: only her novels No Reason for Murder and Watcher from the Shore, both translated by Edward Putzar, and both somewhat difficult to acquire on Amazon. Her Catholic background seems to dominate her style; both novels sound heavily moralizing. After half a century of writing though, she is still a part of the cultural conversation: she had the 9th best selling book of last year with 老いの才覚.

The other winners of this year’s prize include actor Takakura Ken; Niigata Prefecture’s Sado Crested Ibis Conservation Center; the Tokyo Shimbun for their ongoing reportage and investigation of the Fukushima nuclear facility and the government’s response and handling of the disaster; Kondo Makoto, for pioneering breast cancer research; and Icho Kaori and Yoshida Saori, for three consecutive gold medal wins in the Olympics in female wrestling.