Indian-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has been appointed as a member of US President Barack Obama's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, along with five others.
"I am proud that these distinguished individuals will serve in my Administration. The arts and the humanities enhance the vibrancy of our society, inspire us and strengthen our democracy," Obama said in a statement.
"I look forward to working with them in the weeks and months ahead," Obama said.
Besides Lahiri, other appointed to the committee are Chuck Close, Fred Goldring, Sheila Johnson, Pamela Joyner and Ken Solomon, the White House said.
A fiction writer, Lahiri's debut collection of stories, 'Interpreter of Maladies', received the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Addison M Metcalf Award and the New Yorker magazine's Debut of the Year.
Her novel, 'The Namesake', was a New York Times Notable Book, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was selected as one of the best books of the year by USA Today and Entertainment Weekly.
Her latest story collection, 'Unaccustomed Earth', won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Vallombrosa-Gregor von Rezzori Prize.