african american authors Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is one of the noted American authors known for her rich novels with African American characters. Born in February 1931 Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize winner. The best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved. Ladies Home Journal named her as The 30 Most Powerful Women in America in 2002.

Toni Morrison graduated in English from Howard in 1953 and did masters in English from Cornell University. After graduation she became an English instructor at Texas southern University in Houston. She wrote her first novel The Bluest Eyes about a black girl who longed for blue eyes. The novel was selected for Oprah’s Book Club in 2000. Her next novel Sula was nominated for the National Book Award in 1973. Toni’s third novel Song of Solomon won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988 Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved won her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Later Beloved was adopted as a film starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. In May 2006 the Beloved was named the best American novel in the last 25 years by New York Times.

Toni Morrison works mostly concentrate on African American women but she does not identify herself as a feminist. Toni Morrison has co written books for children along with her youngest son Slade Morrison. Toni Morrison was the first African American woman to won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

Toni Morrison taught English in two branches of the State University of New York. After 1990s Toni Morrison had regularly conducted creative writing workshops to students. In 1979 Bernard College awarded her its highest prestige, the Bernard Medal of Distinction. Later she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the Oxford University. Toni Morrison presently is in the editorial board of The Nation magazine. Toni Morrison played an important part in bringing African American literature to the forefront.