This week, President Barack Obama announced the 19 recipients of the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Chilean author is one of them. The medal is the highest civilian honor in the United States, and it’s given to those who have made notable contributions to the country’s security and national interests, world peace, or to significant cultural endeavors.

“Allende has won more literary awards than anyone could count on both hands and feet. In 2010, she won Chile’s National Literature Prize. In United States, she has been awarded the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature; the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, which is given to ““a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life”; and dozens of individual book awards. She’s also taken home Denmark’s prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Literary Award.”

Winners will be given their awards during a November 24 ceremony at the White House. Read the complete story here.