Washington Post's Dana Priest honored at Story in the Public Square at Salve's Pell Center / Photo

Providence Journal photos / Frieda Squires

Dana Priest, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Washington Post and the inaugural winner of the Pell Center Prize for Story in the Public Square, is honored today at Salve Regina University in Newport. The award is presented to a modern storyteller whose lifetime of work has had a positive impact on public affairs.

NEWPORT, R.I. -- Washington Post reporter Dana Priest was named Friday as the winner of the first Pell Center Price fo Story in the Public Square -- a new writing award given jointly by the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University, in conjunction with The Providence Journal.

"Story in the Public Square" is a year-round initiative to study and celebrate public storytelling. It features an annual conference, lectures, awards and student contests, as well as original scholarship about public storytelling and how those stories can affect the public debate.

Priest is a national security reporter whose work focuses on intelligence and counterterrorism. She is working on her second book, "Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State."

Former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, right, laughs with Priest and Providence Journal Publisher Howard G. Sutton at Story in the Public Square, a joint initiative of the Pell Center at Salve Regina University and The Providence Journal. It seeks to examine and, where appropriate, celebrate the role narrative storytelling plays in public affairs.

Salve Regina President Jane Gerety, left, and Karen Bordeleau, senior vice president and executive editor at the Providence Journal, at Salve Regina University today.

Providence Journal Vice President and Editorial Pages Editor Robert Whitcomb, Judy and Laurence Cutler, and Salve's President Gerety.