Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel '' The Hours'', which won the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is a senior lecturer of

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literar ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Early life and education

Cunningham was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

, and grew up in Pasadena, California. He studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

at Stanford University, where he earned his degree. Later, at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...

, he received a Michener Fellowship and was awarded a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts a ...

degree from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wr ...

. While studying at Iowa, he had short stories published in the ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' and the ''

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Ph ...

''. His short story "White Angel" was later used as a chapter in his novel ''A Home at the End of the World''. It was included in "The Best American Short Stories, 1989", published by Houghton Mifflin. In 1993, Cunningham received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

and in 1988 a

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federa ...

Fellowship. In 1995 he was awarded a

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...

. Cunningham has taught at the

Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise devoted to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers through residency programs, to the propagation of aesthetic values and experience, and to the restoratio ...

Provincetown Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, and in the

M.F.A. program at Brooklyn College. He is a senior lecturer of

Career

'' The Hours'' established Cunningham as a major force in the American writing sphere, and his 2010 novel, '' By Nightfall'', was also well received by U.S. critics. Cunningham edited a book of poetry and prose by

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

, ''Laws for Creations'', and co-wrote, with Susan Minot, a screenplay adapted from Minot's novel ''Evening''. He was a producer for the 2007 film '' Evening'', starring

Glenn Close Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, Close has garnered numerous accolades, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards ...

Toni Collette Toni Collette Galafassi (born Toni Collett; 1 November 1972) is an Australian actress, producer, singer, and songwriter. Known for her work in television and independent films, she has received various accolades throughout her career, inclu ...

, and

Meryl Streep Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...

. In November 2010, Cunningham judged one of NPR's "Three Minute Fiction" contests. In April 2018, it was announced that Cunningham would serve as consulting producer for a revival of the ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of nine novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2014, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBT. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally seria ...

'' miniseries, which is based on Armistead Maupin's book series of the same name. The

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

premiered on June 7, 2019.

Personal life

Although Cunningham is gay and was in a long-term

domestic partnership A domestic partnership is a legal relationship, usually between couples, who live together and share a common domestic life, but are not married (to each other or to anyone else). People in domestic partnerships receive benefits that guarantee ...

with psychoanalyst Ken Corbett, he dislikes being referred to as a gay writer, according to a PlanetOut article. While he often writes about gay people, he does not "want the gay aspects of isbooks to be perceived as their single, primary characteristic." Cunningham lives and works in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Golden States'' (1984) * '' A Home at the End of the World'' (1990) * ''Flesh and Blood'' (1995) * '' The Hours'' (1998) * ''

Specimen Days ''Specimen Days'' is a 2005 novel by American writer Michael Cunningham. It contains three stories: one that takes place in the past, one in the present, and one in the future. Each of the three stories depicts three central, semi-consistent cha ...

'' (2005) * '' By Nightfall'' (2010) * ''The Snow Queen'' (2014)

Short stories

Collections: * ''A Wild Swan and Other Tales'' (2015), Farrar, Straus and Giroux , collection of 11 short stories: *: "Dis. Enchant.", "A Wild Swan", "Crazy Old Lady", "Jacked", "Poisoned", "A Monkey's Paw", "Little Man", "Steadfast; Tin", "Beasts", "Her Hair", "Ever/After" Uncollected short stories: * "White Angel" (1989), later used as a chapter in novel ''A Home at the End of the World'' * "Mister Brother" (1999) * "The Destruction Artist" (2007), collected in ''A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer'' (2007), edited by

Eve Ensler V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play '' The Vagina Monologues''.

and Mollie Doyle * "A Wild Swan" (2010), collected in anthology '' My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales'' (2010), edited by Kate Bernheimer and Carmen Giménez Smith

Non-fiction

* , article * ''Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown'' (2002), travels * ''Company'' (2008), writing * ''About Time: Fashion and Duration'' (2020), with Andrew Bolton, couture

Screenplays

* '' A Home at the End of the World'' (2004) * '' Evening'' (2007)

Contributor

* ''Drawn by the Sea'' (2000) ( exhibition catalogue text; 110 signed copies) * '' The Voyage Out'' (2001), by

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

(Modern Library Classics edition) (Introduction) * ''I Am Not This Body: The Pinhole Photographs of Barbara Ess'' (2001) (Text) * '' Washington Square'' (2004), by

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was th ...

(Signet Classics edition) (Afterword) * ''

Death in Venice ''Death in Venice ''(German: ''Der Tod in Venedig'') is a novella by German author Thomas Mann, published in 1912. It presents an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a Pol ...

'' (2004), by

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

(new translation by Michael Henry Heim) (Introduction) * ''Laws for Creations'' (2006), poems by

(Editor and introduction) * ''Fall River Boys'' (2012), photo book by Richard Renaldi, introductory essay

Adaptations

* '' The Hours'' (2002), film directed by

Stephen Daldry Stephen David Daldry CBE (born 2 May 1960) is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Olivier Awards for his work in the West End and three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway. He has received thr ...

, based on novel '' The Hours'' * '' The Hours'' (2022), opera with music by

Kevin Puts Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, ''Silent Night''. Early life and education Puts was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Alma, Mi ...

and libretto by Greg Pierce, based on the novel and the film * '' A Home at the End of the World'' (2004), film directed by Michael Mayer, based on novel '' A Home at the End of the World'' * ''The Destruction Artist'' (2012), short film directed by Michael Sharpe, based on short story "The Destruction Artist" * ''The Hours: A Live Tribute'' (2016), short film directed by Tim McNeill, based on novel '' The Hours''

Awards and achievements

*"White Angel" was included in the 1989 ''

Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of '' The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in ...

''. *"Mister Brother" was included in the 2000 ''

O. Henry Prize Stories The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

''. For ''The Hours'', Cunningham was awarded the: *

- 1999 * PEN/Faulkner Award - 1999 * Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Book Award - 1999 In 1995, Cunningham received the a

. In 2011, Cunningham won the Fernanda Pivano Award for American Literature in Italy.

References

External links

* *
2004 article by Randy Shulman
from ''

Metro Weekly ''Metro Weekly'' is a free weekly magazine for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Washington, D.C., United States. It was first published on May 5, 1994. ''Metro Weekly'' includes national and local news, intervie ...

''
Michael Cunningham's profile
in

Michael Cunningham's profile
a
The Whiting Foundation

Speculative Fiction and the Art of Subversion - Conversation between Michael Cunningham and Margaret Atwood
a
Key West Literary Seminar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Michael 1952 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American people of Croatian descent American gay writers Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni American LGBT novelists LGBT people from California LGBT people from Ohio Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners Stonewall Book Award winners Living people Novelists from Ohio PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners People from Provincetown, Massachusetts Postmodern writers Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners Stanford University alumni University of Iowa alumni Writers from Cincinnati Writers from Pasadena, California Yale University faculty Brooklyn College faculty Novelists from California Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters