American novelist and screenwriter
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
Cunningham reading at a
W. H. Auden tribute in New York, 2007
Novels
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:
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
Contributor
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
For The Hours , Cunningham was awarded the:
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
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