The Official Website for
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE AND PULITZER PRIZE
Sula is wild, and daring; she does what she wants, while Nel is well-mannered, a mamma’s girl with a questioning heart. Growing up they forge a bond stronger than anything, stronger even than the dark secret they have to bear. Strong enough, it seems, to last a lifetime—until, decades later, as the girls become women, Sula’s anarchy leads to a betrayal that may be beyond forgiveness.
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Masterful, richly textured, bittersweet, and vital, Sula is a modern masterpiece about love and kinship, about living in an America birthed from slavery. Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison gives life to characters who struggle with what society tells them to be, and the love they long for and crave as Black women. Most of all, they ask: When can we let go? What must we hold back? And just how much can be shared in a friendship?
Listen to an Audio Sample from Sula, read by Toni Morrison
These pages give us her searing prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of language, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., her heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. She looks deeply into the fault lines of culture and freedom: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, “black matter(s),” human rights, the artist in society, the Afro-American presence in American literature. And she turns her incisive critical eye to her own work (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, Paradise) and that of others.
An essential collection from an essential writer, The Source of Self-Regard shines with the literary elegance, intellectual prowess, spiritual depth, and moral compass that have made Toni Morrison our most cherished and enduring voice.
Listen to an Audio Sample from The Source of Self-Regard, read by Toni Morrison
Fiction
Nonfiction
Events
Honors and Awards
1977: National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon
1988: American Book Award for Beloved
1988: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved
1993: Nobel Prize in Literature
1993: Commander of the Arts and Letters, Paris
1996: National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
2000: National Humanities Medal
2010: Officier de la Légion d'Honneur
2011: Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction
2012: Presidential Medal of Freedom
2014: Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award given by the National Book Critics Circle
2020: Designation of "Toni Morrison Day" in Ohio, to be celebrated annually on her birthday, February 18
2021: The Toni Morrison Achievement Award was established with the National Book Critics Circle
A Celebration of the Life of Toni Morrison
Contact
Permissions (CAA): amanda.urbanasst@caa.com
Permissions for use of the papers: boatman@princeton.edu
Publicity: Todd Doughty, tdoughty@penguinrandomhouse.com
By clicking Sign Up, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime.