TONI MORRISON

Biography Presentation by Lauren Collins

EARLY LIFE
Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, February 18, 1931 Adopted the nickname Toni after her baptismal name Anthony Favorite authors were Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy Received her Bachelors in English from Howard University and her Masters in English from Cornell University Worked various jobs as professors and editors

WRITING CAREER
Began fiction writing as part of an informal writing group at Howard University Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970 Has written 10 novels, and many other shorter pieces Generally focuses on the African-American community, with a particular interest in AfricanAmerican women

AWARDS
1977- National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon 1988- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved 1993- Nobel Prize for Literature 2000- National Humanities Medal 2012- Presidential Medal of Freedom

IMPORTANT QUOTES
If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another. Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

COMMON THEMES
Sense of Loss Identity (racial,ethnic,gender) Community Loss of Innocence