Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was a novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. Born in Lorain, Ohio, she became one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. Morrison’s novels explore Black identity, community, and history in American life. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, making her the first African American woman to receive the honor. Her 1987 novel Beloved, based on the true story of an enslaved woman, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.