Toni MorrisonAfrican-American novelist Toni Morrison was born in
Ohio to a spiritually oriented family. She attended Howard
University in Washington, D.C., and has worked as a senior
editor in a major Washington publishing house and as a
distinguished professor at various universities. Morrison's
richly woven fiction has gained her international acclaim. In
compelling, large-spirited novels, she treats the complex
identities of black people in a universal manner. In her early
work The Bluest Eye (1970), a strong-willed young black girl
tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, who survives an abusive
father. Pecola believes that her dark eyes have magically become
blue, and that they will make her lovable. Morrison has said
that she was creating her own sense of identity as a writer
through this novel: "I was Pecola, Claudia, everybody." Sula
(1973) describes the strong friendship of two women. Morrison
paints African-American women as unique, fully individual
characters rather than as stereotypes. Morrison's Song