podlist.gr

Today’s Quotation is care of Toni Morrison.
Listen in!
Subscribe to the Quarantine Tapes at quarantinetapes.com or search for the Quarantine Tapes on your favorite podcast app!

Toni Morrison is one of the most celebrated authors in the world. In addition to writing plays, and children’s books, her novels have earned her countless prestigious awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. In 1949, Morrison decided to attend a historically black institution for her college education. She moved to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University.

After teaching at Howard University for seven years, Morrison moved to Syracuse, New York to become an editor for the textbook division of Random House publishing. Within two years, she transferred to the New York City branch of the company and began to edit fiction and books by African-American authors. Although she worked for a publishing company, Morrison did not publish her first novel called The Bluest Eye until she was 39 years old. Three years later, Morrison published her second novel called Sula, that was nominated for the National Book Award. In 1993, Morrison became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Three years later, she was also chosen by the National Endowment for the Humanities to give the Jefferson Lecture, and was honored with the National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Morrison’s work continued to influence writers and artists through her focus on African American life and her commentary on race relations. Following this, Morrison’s books were featured four times as selections for Oprah’s Book Club. While writing and producing, Morrison was also a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University. Her work earned her an honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Oxford, and the opportunity to be a guest curator at the Louvre museum in Paris. In 2000, she was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. Morrison also wrote children’s books with her son until his death at 45 years old. Two years later, Morrison published the last book they were working on together and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in that same month. Morrison passed away in 2019 from complications of pneumonia.

From https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/toni-morrison

For more information about Toni Morrison:

Previously on The Quarantine Tapes:

Edwidge Danticat on Morrison, at 04:30: 
https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-018-edwidge-danticat

Ayad Akhtar on Morrison, at 27:35: 
https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-156-ayad-akhtar

Elizabeth Gilbert on Morrison, at 31:50: 
https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-155-elizabeth-gilbert

Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., on Morrison, at 25:15: 
https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-104-eddie-s-glaude-jr

Toshi Reagon on Morrison, at 08:48: 
https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-065-toshi-reagon

Viet Thanh Nguyen on Morrison, at 15:18: 
https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-052

Elizabeth Alexander on Morrison, at 08:51: 
https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-062-elizabeth-alexander

“Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”: 
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/toni-morrison-the-pieces-i-am-documentary/16971/

“Toni Morrison and What Our Mothers Couldn’t Say”: 
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/toni-morrison-and-what-our-mothers-couldnt-say