Learn more about the life of contemporary novelist Toni Morrison.
Grades:
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Themes:
1931-
Novelist
Birthplace: Lorain, OH
Education: Howard University, Cornell University

Chloe Anthony Wofford lived in an integrated neighborhood of a small town in Ohio. She loved to read books and grew up in a family of storytellers. After graduating from high school with honors, Chloe went to Howard University in Washington, DC, where she was given the nickname "Toni." She received her M.A. in English literature from Cornell University. Toni started writing fiction while she was a teacher at Howard University.

Toni's books are often emotional portrayals of African-American life. Her first two novels, The Bluest Eye and Sula, received favorable reviews. Her first best-seller, Song of Solomon, won the National Book Critics' Circle Award for best fiction in 1977. Toni was on her way to becoming one of America's leading novelists. Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. Morrison was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy called Morrison "a literary artist of the first rank" whose novels are "characterized by visionary force and poetic import." She is the second American woman to receive this prestigious award.

Since 1989, Ms. Morrison has been the Robert F. Goheen Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University. Morrison published her seventh novel Paradise in 1998.

"I would like my work to do two things: be as demanding and sophisticated as I want it to be, and at the same time be accessible in a sort of emotional way to lots of people, just like jazz. That's a hard task. But that what I want to do."
–Toni Morrison in an interview with The New York Times Magazine, 1994



Related Resources


Selected Works by Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye
Jazz
Paradise
Sula
Song of Solomon
Tar Baby
Beloved

Plays
Dreaming Emmet (performed 1986, but unpublished)

Essays
Playing in the Dark-Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: Harvard University Press 1992.
Racing Justice, Engendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas and the Others on the Constructing of Social Reality. Ed. and introduction Toni Morrison, Chatto and Windus 1992.

Web Resource
Biography of Toni Morrison from the Gale Salutes Black History Month site
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/index.htm

Black History Month Return to the Encyclopedia
of Prominent African Americans
.

Featured High School Resources

Romeo and Juliet Teaching Unit Kit

LESSON PLANS

Romeo and Juliet Teaching Unit Kit

A complete teaching kit for a full or partial unit on Romeo and Juliet Take your students on a thought-provoking, insig...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER
Poetry Packet for High School

ACTIVITIES

National Poetry Month Themed Packet for High School

To celebrate Poetry Month, this resource shares 3 activities that will help high school students to engage with poetry i...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER
lesson plans for animal farm - kit for a complete unit on the novel

LESSON PLANS

Animal Farm Teaching Unit Kit

Everything you need to teach a full or partial unit on Animal Farm Help your students dive into the modern relevance, m...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

Related Resources

REFERENCE

Ralph Johnson Bunche

1904-1971 Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 Birthplace: Detroit, MI Education: University o...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

REFERENCE

Maya Angelou

1928-2014 Poet, Novelist, Composer, Actor Birthplace: St.

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

REFERENCE

Frederick Douglass

1817(?)-1895 Abolitionist, Author, and Orator Birthplace: Tuckahoe, MD Frederick Douglass...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

REFERENCE

Alice Walker

1944- Novelist, poet Birthplace: Eatonon, GA Graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, 1965 ...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

REFERENCE

Langston Hughes

1902-67 American poet and central figure of the Harlem Renaissance Birthplace: Joplin, MO Education: Lincoln Universi...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER

REFERENCE

Richard Wright

border=0> 1908-1960 Author Birthplace: Roxie, MS In 1927, after ye...

Add to Folder
creative writing
children's book
activities
classroom tools
language arts and writing
vocabulary
Create new folderCREATE NEW FOLDER
loading gif