Writers, Artists, and Leaders Pay Tribute to Toni Morrison

Nobel Prize–winning novelist Toni Morrison died on Monday at the age of 88, and in the hours following the first reports of her death, many novelists, filmmakers, politicians, and more spoke about her importance to them. The author of 11 novels including Beloved and The Bluest Eye, Morrison was also an editor, prolific literary critic, and activist. Morrison earned numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and she was the first black American woman be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

Below is a collection of a few of the tributes responding to the news of Morrison’s death.