Acclaimed Author and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison Dies at 88

Out of nowhere we have sad news to pass along regarding acclaimed author and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. She is dead at age 88.

According to the Associated Press, a friend confirmed Morrison’s passing on Tuesday morning. The circumstances surrounding her death are unclear.

But we do know that Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. That was confirmed by her publishing company, Alfred A. Knopf.

Morrison was the first black woman to receive the Nobel literature prize, awarded in 1993. The Swedish Academy hailed her use of language and her “visionary force.”

Her novel “Beloved,” in which a mother makes a tragic choice to murder her baby to save the girl from slavery, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters honored Morrison this spring with a gold medal for lifetime achievement in fiction.