Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer most renowned for his decades-spanning novel The Hours (1998) and its lauded 2002 film adaptation. After attending graduate school in creative writing, Cunningham began his career as a novelist, though he didn't gain notable recognition until the publication of his second book, the intricate and intimate tale A Home at the End of the World (1990). As a gay man, Cunningham found homosexuality to be a natural element in his work, as further evinced by the family saga Flesh and Blood (1995). Already established as an esteemed author, he reached a new level of success and acclamation with The Hours, which presents the stories of three women of different generations struggling with love and sexuality. The novel was subsequently adapted into a star-studded drama in 2002, and Cunningham himself later scripted a 2004 film version of A Home at the End of the World. His literary follow-up, Specimen Days (2005), had a relatively lukewarm reception, but his next novel, the pensive By Nightfall (2010), reasserted his status as major American writer.