Don’t you love when she pulls out a surprise appearance like that? Winona attended last night the Saban Community Clinic Dinner Gala in Los Angeles, in which she gave a speech. We have some pictures added in our gallery (sadly not many, since she seems to have skipped the red carpet). Enjoy!

Last Wednesday (28) Winona was one of several stars on hand at the PEN Center Literary Awards Festival in Beverly Hills. The event was held at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel and honored the bestselling author Isabel Allende, who is considered the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author.

The 74-year-old’s first book, La Casa De Los Espíritus, was rejected by a number of publishers, before it was finally published in Buenos Aires in 1982. It became an immediate best-seller, won critical acclaim and Chile’s Novel of the Year, and was translated into 37 languages.

The story details the life of a single family, spanning four generations, tracing the post-colonial social and political upheavals of Chile — even though the country is never specifically named.

In 1993 it became the basis of the film The House Of The Spirits, boasting a star-crammed cast of Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas and Vanessa Redgrave, as well as a 22-year-old Ryder.

Check in our gallery pictures of Winona presenting Allende with the Lifetime Achievement Award.