Writer of The Hours

Background:

Award-winning American writer Michael Cunningham is best known for his novel “The Hours” (1998), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Book Award in 1999. His novel was adapted into a motion picture in 2002 by director Stephen Daldry and scriptwriter David Hare and received an impressive nine Oscar nominations. He won the USC Scripter Award, sharing with Hare.

After this, Cunningham wrote the script of “A Home at the End of the World,” which he adapted from his own 1990 novel of the same title, and co-wrote the screenplay of and produced “Evening” (2007), based on the work of fellow novelist Susan Minot.

Cunningham's other novels are “Golden States” (1984), “Flesh and Blood” (1995) and “Specimen Days” (2005).

Educator

Childhood and Family:

Born on November 6, 1952, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Michael Cunningham was raised in Pasadena, California. He received a B.A. in English Literature from Stanford University and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, where he was also awarded a Michener Fellowship.

Now a New York City resident, Michael teaches at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and in the creative writing MFA program at Brooklyn College.

Michael is a bisexual, but he has been in monogamous relationship for many years.

A Home at the End of the World

Career:

While working toward his postgraduate degree in Iowa, Michael Cunningham had short stories published in the Paris Review and the Atlantic Monthly. His first novel, “Golden States,” was published in 1984, four years after Cunningham earned his M.F.A.

The Ohio-born, however, did not have his first brush with fame until Farrar, Straus & Giroux published his next novel, “A Home at the End of the World,” in 1990. The book got extensive kudos. “White Angel,” his story from “A Home at the End of the World,” was included in “The Best American Short Stories, the previous year.

After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993, Cunningham released his third novel, “Flesh and Blood,” in 1995 and won a Whiting Writers Award later that same year. However, it was “The Hours” that really propelled him to stardom. Published in 1998, the novel won Cunningham the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Novel), the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Book Award. With the success, the writer emerged as a leading force in American writing.

In 2002, the big screen version of Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winner, “The Hours,” was released with Stephen Daldry directing and Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Street starring. Scripted by David Hare, the movie collected nine Oscar nominations and won one for Best Actress in a Leading role (Kidman). It features Cunningham in a bit part as a man outside flower shop.

In August 2002, Cunningham released a work of non-fiction called “Lands End: A Walk in Provincetown.”

Two years later, Cunningham made his debut as screenwriter with “A Home at the End of the World” (2004), which he adapted from his 1990 novel of the same name. The film was directed by

Michael Mayer and starred Colin Farrell as the young Bobby Morrow. For his effort, Cunningham was nominated for a Chlotrudis Award in the category of Best Screenplay – Adapted.

Cunningham's novel, “Specimen Days,” released in 2005, received poor response from American critics.

In 2007, Cunningham revisited the big screen to produce “Evening,” a drama/romance directed by Lajos Koltai and starring Claire Danes, Toni Collette,Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson and Hugh Dancy. He also co-wrote the script with Susan Minot, who wrote the novel of the same name.

Apart from his novels and his film work, Cunningham also has contributed to other people's work. He wrote the Introduction for 2001's “The Voyage Out” by Virginia Woolf and 2004's “Death In Venice” by Thomas Mann, and was editor on 2006's “Laws for Creations, Poems” by Walt Whitman.

Awards:

• USC Scripter: “The Hours,” 2003

• Pulitzer Prize: Fiction (Novel), “The Hours,” 1999

• PEN/Faulkner: “The Hours,” 1999

• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Book Award: “The Hours,” 1999

• Whiting Writers Award: 1995