TONI MORRISON REMEMBERED
Toni Morrison wrote to us again and again, exhorting our beauty, making us grapple with our pain, reaffirming our humanity. Her every word a caress, her every sentence an embrace, her every paragraph, a cupping of her hands around our faces that said: I know you, I see you, we are together. -- Jesmyn Ward, Novelist
I don’t know if we would have the vocabulary for contemplating the impact of slavery upon contemporary selfhood and nationhood, let alone for speaking publicly about it, were it not for the work of Toni Morrison. -- Tracy K. Smith, 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States
She was fearless. She said you could be black and great. And she never stopped saying that. --Bryan Stevenson, Lawyer, Advocate, Founder and Director of the Equal Justice Initiative
Technically, she is magnificent, her emotional intelligence is second to none and her bravery – she didn’t care what people thought, be that the reader or not, she just told the truth as she saw it – was equal to her artistry. --Kwame Kwei-Armah, Actor, Playwright, Director
What drew me to her novels wasn’t just the depth of characters or the freshness of her language, but her unrelenting commitment to excavating the past, and interrogating it. -- Laila Lalami, Novelist, Essayist
TONI MORRISON
Toni Morrison 2008 by Angela Radulescu, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
aka:
Chloe Anthony Wofford
Chloe Anthony Morrison
Cloe Anthony Wofford Morrison
Dates: 1931- 2019
Nationality: American
Ethnicity: African-American
Literary Periods:
American Confessional Period, 1960-
Postwar Period, 1945-1999
Twentieth Century, 1900-1999
Twenty-First Century, 2000-
Literary Movements:
Feminist Writers, 1900-
Postmodernism 1963-
TONI MORRISON'S NOBEL LECTURE
Click to Play
Read the transcript
Toni Morrison delivered her Nobel Lecture on 7 December 1993.
Videos
Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison speaks with Alan Yentob.
Angela Davis and Toni Morrison live from NYPL
Toni Morrison's Graffiti & Murals, taken by Zarateman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
REFERENCE & BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia Miller Library PS3563 .O8749 Z913 2003 [BOOK]
"Toni Morrison" by Cedric Gael Bryant [ARTICLE]
Critical essay and biography on the life and works of Tony Morrison.
| You'll also want to check out... |
- Literature Resource Center [DATABASE]Includes entries from Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Twayne's Authors Series, and Scribner Writers Series
- Literature Online (LION) [DATABASE]Biographical overview, complete bibliography, journal articles, audio & video recordings, and recommended Web sites
- Oxford African American Studies Center [DATABASE]More than 8,000 historical, biographical and other reference articles by top scholars in the field
RESEARCH & CRITICISM
Find books, essays and journal articles in MLA International Bibliography
MLA International Bibliography is the definitive literary research database, indexing the most authoritative scholarship on Toni Morrison from books and academic journals.
MLA indexes and links to the entire JSTOR literary research collection
as well as linking to many other full-text providers.
- Browse all Colby materials about Toni Morrison [CATALOG]Pay special attention to titles listed under the subject "Morrison Toni Criticism And Interpretation"
The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison (2007) by
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is one of the most widely studied of contemporary American authors. Her novels, particularly Beloved, have had a dramatic impact on the American canon and attracted considerable critical commentary. This 2007 Companion introduces and examines her oeuvre as a whole, the first evaluation to include not only her famous novels, but also her other literary works (short story, drama, musical, and opera), her social and literary criticism, and her career as an editor and teacher. Innovative contributions from internationally recognized critics and academics discuss Morrison's themes, narrative techniques, language and political philosophy, and explain the importance of her work to American studies and world literature. This comprehensive and accessible approach, together with a chronology and guide to further reading, makes this an essential book for students and scholars of African American literature.
Call Number: Colby PS3563.O8749 Z58 2007ISBN: 9780521861113
INTERVIEWS
In Black and White: Conversations with African American Writers [DVD]
Miller Library DVD PS153 .N5 I5 2008
You'll also want to check out...
- A Writer's Work with Toni Morrison [VHS]Miller Library Video 1441
Toni Morrison : conversations (2008) by
As a chronicler of the African American experience in fiction and as an incisive cultural commentator in her essays and lectures, Toni Morrison (b. 1931) is regarded as one of the nation's most distinguished novelists and intellectuals. Her novels are richly layered narratives that explore the meanings of tragedy and myth in individual lives. Morrison's perspectives on American life and culture, rendered with a deep understanding of the consequences of history and the power of art, are always compelling. Toni Morrison: Conversations includes interviews with the Nobel Laureate that bring into the foreground Morrison's comments on American literature and society, the academy, and her own work. She discusses growing up in Lorain, Ohio, her role as editor at Random House, the continuing evolution of her style, her teaching philosophy, and her most recent novels Jazz, Paradise, and Love. This volume includes interviews and profiles from the 1970s and 1980s that were not collected in Conversations with Toni Morrison (1993) and a rich collection of new interviews published together for the first time, including conversations with Paula Giddings, Salman Rushdie, Charlie Rose, and Elissa Schappell. Carolyn C. Denard is the author of scholarly essays on Toni Morrison and the forthcoming Cambridge Introduction to Toni Morrison. She is Associate Dean of the College at Brown University and founder of the Toni Morrison Society.
Call Number: Miller PS3563.O8749 Z46 2008ISBN: 9781604730180
Conversations with Toni Morrison (1994) by
The Nobel Prize author discusses her life & such acclaimed works as Sula, Tar Baby, & Beloved.
Call Number: Miller PS3563.O8749 Z464 1994ISBN: 0878056912
NEWSPAPERS
- Toni Morrison archives at the New York TimesNews about Toni Morrison, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
WWW
- The Toni Morrison Society"The Society's mission is to initiate, sponsor, and encourage critical dialog, scholarship, publications, conferences, and other projects devoted to the study of the life and works of Toni Morrison. "
- Voices from the GapsCelebrating and documenting the creativity of Asian, Black, Latina, and Native women, VG is one of the internet's most comprehensive and well-respected academic databases for women writers of color. The site reaches backward and forward to place readers on a bridge which connects the gaps that exist in literature, society, and culture. Through our student-generated profiles, essays, reviews, and interviews, you can engage with artists whose works put faces on difficult and important issues.