Michael Cunningham
- Author
- screenwriter
- senior lecturer in creative writing at Yale University
University of Iowa (MFA)
PEN/Faulkner Award
Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952)[1] is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction[2] and the PEN/Faulkner Award[3] in 1999. Cunningham is Professor in the Practice of Creative Writing at Yale University.[4]
Early life and education
Cunningham was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in La Cañada Flintridge, California.[5][6] He studied English literature at Stanford University, where he earned his degree. Later, at the University of Iowa, he received a Michener Fellowship and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. While studying at Iowa, he had short stories published in the Atlantic Monthly and The Paris Review. 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 1988, Cunningham received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship[7] and in 1993 a Guggenheim Fellowship.[8] In 1995 he was awarded a Whiting Award.[9] Cunningham has taught at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and in the creative writing M.F.A. program at Brooklyn College.
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.[10] Cunningham edited a book of poetry and prose by Walt Whitman,[11] 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, Toni Collette, and Meryl Streep.
In November 2010, Cunningham judged one of NPR's "Three Minute Fiction" contests.[12]
In April 2018, it was announced that Cunningham would serve as consulting producer for a revival of the Tales of the City miniseries, which is based on Armistead Maupin's book series of the same name.[13] The miniseries premiered on June 7, 2019.
Personal life
Although Cunningham is gay, and married to psychoanalyst Ken Corbett,[14] he dislikes being referred to as a gay writer, according to a PlanetOut article.[15] While he often writes about gay people, he does not "want the gay aspects of [his] books to be perceived as their single, primary characteristic."[16] Cunningham lives in Brooklyn, New York and works in Manhattan.[17]
Bibliography
Novels
- Golden States (1984)
- A Home at the End of the World (1990)
- Flesh and Blood (1995)
- The Hours (1998)
- Specimen Days (2005)
- By Nightfall (2010)
- The Snow Queen (2014)
- Day (2023)
Short stories
Collections:
- A Wild Swan and Other Tales (2015), Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 978-0374290252, 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 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
- "The Slap of Love". Open City. 6. 1996., article
- Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown (2002), travels
- Company (2008), an essay on the influence of Virginia Woolf on Cunningham's 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 (Modern Library Classics edition) (Introduction)
- I Am Not This Body: The Pinhole Photographs of Barbara Ess (2001) (Text)
- Washington Square (2004), by Henry James (Signet Classics edition) (Afterword)
- Death in Venice (2004), by Thomas Mann (new translation by Michael Henry Heim) (Introduction)
- Laws for Creations (2006), poems by Walt Whitman (Editor and introduction)
- Fall River Boys (2012), photo book by Richard Renaldi, introductory essay[18]
Adaptations
- The Hours (2002), film directed by Stephen Daldry, based on novel The Hours
- The Hours (2022), opera with music by Kevin Puts 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.
- "Mister Brother" was included in the 2000 O. Henry Prize Stories.
For The Hours, Cunningham was awarded the:
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - 1999
- PEN/Faulkner Award - 1999
- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Book Award - 1999
In 1995, Cunningham received the a Whiting Award.
In 2011, Cunningham won the Fernanda Pivano Award for American Literature in Italy.[19]
See also
References
- ^ "Meet the Writers: Michael Cunningham". barnesandnoble.com. Barnes & Noble. c. 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-04-08. Retrieved 2009-06-26.
- ^ "The Hours, by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)". www.pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
- ^ "Past Award Winners & Finalists | The PEN/Faulkner Foundation". www.penfaulkner.org. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
- ^ "Michael Cunningham | English". english.yale.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
- ^ "Michael Cunningham". SBA The Steven Barclay Agency. Archived from the original on 2023-06-26. Retrieved 2023-10-03.
- ^ Felicelli, Anita (September 13, 2022). "The Moment: Introducing the Special Guest in Conversation with Julie Otsuka". Alta. Archived from the original on 2022-09-13.
- ^ "Literature Fellowships". www.arts.gov. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
- ^ "Michael Cunningham". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation... Retrieved 2023-12-11.
- ^ "Michael Cunningham". www.whiting.org. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
- ^ metacritic entry on "Specimen Days"[dead link]
- ^ "For Every Atom Belonging to Me: Poet Michael Cunningham", Radio Netherlands Archives, October 7, 2006
- ^ "Three-Minute Fiction: The Winner Is ..." NPR.org.
- ^ Petski, Denise (April 24, 2018). "Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City Revival Gets Series Order At Netflix; Ellen Page Joins Cast". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
- ^ Leland, John (October 24, 2002). "At Home With: Michael Cunningham; This Is the House The Book Bought". The New York Times. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
- ^ PlanetOut Entertainment Archived August 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Moore, Chadwick (September 30, 2010). "Catching Up with Michael Cunningham". Out. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
- ^ Alter, Alexandra (September 13, 2023). "Michael Cunningham Couldn't Help but Write a Pandemic Novel". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
- ^ "Charles Lane Press | Books".
- ^ "Le menzogne di Cunningham e la musica di Servillo - la Repubblica.it". July 2011.
External links
- Official website
- Michael Cunningham at IMDb
- 2004 article by Randy Shulman from Metro Weekly
- Michael Cunningham's profile in Yale University
- Michael Cunningham's profile at The Whiting Foundation
- Speculative Fiction and the Art of Subversion - Conversation between Michael Cunningham and Margaret Atwood at Key West Literary Seminar
- Michael Cunningham, A Life In Writing, article in The Guardian
- v
- t
- e
- His Family by Ernest Poole (1918)
- The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (1919)
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1921)
- Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (1922)
- One of Ours by Willa Cather (1923)
- The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson (1924)
- So Big by Edna Ferber (1925)
- Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1926; declined)
- Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (1927)
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1928)
- Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (1929)
- Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge (1930)
- Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (1931)
- The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1932)
- The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling (1933)
- Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Pafford Miller (1934)
- Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (1935)
- Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis (1936)
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1937)
- The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand (1938)
- The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1939)
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1940)
- In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (1942)
- Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (1943)
- Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (1944)
- A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (1945)
- All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (1947)
- Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener (1948)
- Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (1949)
- The Way West by A. B. Guthrie Jr. (1950)
- The Town by Conrad Richter (1951)
- The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk (1952)
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1953)
- A Fable by William Faulkner (1955)
- Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor (1956)
- A Death in the Family by James Agee (1958)
- The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (1959)
- Advise and Consent by Allen Drury (1960)
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1961)
- The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor (1962)
- The Reivers by William Faulkner (1963)
- The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau (1965)
- The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (1966)
- The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (1967)
- The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1968)
- House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (1969)
- The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford (1970)
- Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (1972)
- The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty (1973)
- No award given (1974)
- The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1975)
- Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (1976)
- No award given (1977)
- Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (1978)
- The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1979)
- The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (1980)
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1981)
- Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (1982)
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983)
- Ironweed by William Kennedy (1984)
- Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (1985)
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1986)
- A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1987)
- Beloved by Toni Morrison (1988)
- Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1989)
- The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (1990)
- Rabbit at Rest by John Updike (1991)
- A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1992)
- A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (1993)
- The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (1994)
- The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (1995)
- Independence Day by Richard Ford (1996)
- Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (1997)
- American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1998)
- The Hours by Michael Cunningham (1999)
- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (2001)
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo (2002)
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2003)
- The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2004)
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2005)
- March by Geraldine Brooks (2006)
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2007)
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2008)
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2009)
- Tinkers by Paul Harding (2010)
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011)
- No award given (2012)
- The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (2013)
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2014)
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2015)
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2016)
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2017)
- Less by Andrew Sean Greer (2018)
- The Overstory by Richard Powers (2019)
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2020)
- The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (2021)
- The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen (2022)
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver / Trust by Hernan Diaz (2023)
- Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (2024)