NY Leadership Awards 2006

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1952 and grew up in La Canada, California. He received his B.A. in English literature from Stanford University and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. His novel A Home at the End of the World was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1990 to wide acclaim. Flesh and Blood, another novel, followed in 1995. He received the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel, The Hours, making him the first openly gay author to win a Pulitzer in its 81-year history. He has written one non-fiction book, Land's End: A Walk Through Provincetown. His most recent novel is Specimen Days, published in the summer of 2005.

Among the characters in The Hours are Richard, a gay poet, dying of AIDS, who is about to receive an award for his writing. His description of Richard's increasing dementia and the way he is cared for by Clarissa, an old friend and one-time lover organizing a party to celebrate his award, is an accurate depiction of the gay community's caretaking during this epidemic.

A film version of The Hours was directed by Stephen Daldry and featured Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep. A film version of A Home at the End of the World was directed by Michael Mayer, and featured Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts and Sissy Spacek.

His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, and other publications. His story "White Angel" was chosen for Best American Short Stories 1989, and another story, "Mister Brother," appeared in the 2000 O. Henry Collection.

Michael Cunningham is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award (1995), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1993), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1988), and a Michener Fellowship from the University of Iowa (1982).

He lives in New York City.