Toni Morrison

Facts

Toni Morrison

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Toni Morrison
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1993

Born: 18 February 1931, Lorain, OH, USA

Died: 5 August 2019, New York, NY, USA

Residence at the time of the award: USA

Prize motivation: “who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality”

Language: English

Prize share: 1/1

Life

Toni Morrison was born into a working-class family in Lorain, Ohio in the United States. She read a lot as a child and her father's stories, taken from the African-American tradition, later became an element in her own writing. Morrison has studied and taught English at several universities, including Howard University in Washington D.C. From 1964 she worked as a publishing house editor, and since her debut as an author in 1970, she has also held positions at several universities, including Princeton. Toni Morrison has two children from her marriage to Harold Morrison.

Work

Toni Morrison's works revolve around African-Americans; both their history and their situation in our own time. Morrison's works often depict difficult circumstances and the dark side of humanity, but still convey integrity and redemption. The way she reveals the stories of individual lives conveys insight into, understanding of, and empathy for her characters. Morrison's unique narrative technique has developed with each new work. Among her works are her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved.

To cite this section
MLA style: Toni Morrison – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/facts/>

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