Toni Morrison author page

Toni Morrison biography

Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; 1931–2019) was an American novelist, editor, professor and critic. She won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Black woman to receive that honour.

Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Howard University in 1953, and a Master of Arts degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955.

From 1955 to 1957 she taught at Texas Southern University, then at Howard University. Later she joined Random House, where she became its first Black woman senior editor in the fiction department.

Her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Among her most celebrated novels are Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), and Beloved (1987), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.

She also published critical works, essays, and children’s books. Her final non-fiction collection, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations, was released in 2019 (UK title Mouth Full of Blood: Essays, Speeches, Meditations).

Morrison held the Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University from 1989 until her retirement in 2006.

Her awards include the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, recognising her literary contributions.