Biography of michael cunningham

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Author screenwriter senior lecturer in creative writing at Yale University. Early life and education [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ]. Bibliography [ edit ]. Novels [ edit ]. Short stories [ edit ]. Non-fiction [ edit ]. Screenplays [ edit ]. Contributor [ edit ]. Sign In. Jump to Overview 1 Biography 1 Trivia 3 Edit.

Michael Cunningham is an American novelist and screenwriter. Cunningham is a senior lecturer of creative writing at Yale University.

Biography of michael cunningham

He studied English literature at Stanford University, where he earned his degree. In he was awarded a Whiting Award. The second narrative tells a day in the life of Laura Brown, a housewife living in the suburbs of Los Angeles in To escape the monotony of her existence, she has given herself the task of reading all of Woolf's novels in order and has reached, of course, Mrs.

The third narrative concerns Woolf herself as she sets out, into write the novel that is the inspiration for Cunningham's text. Cunningham subtly weaves a confluence of parallels to link the tales of these three women and revisit familiar themes: the notion of flight, restrictive roles, suicide as a means of escape, creativity as a means of momentarily eluding the biography of michael cunningham of that "old devil" that plagues us all Woolf writing her novel, Laura making a cake, Clarissa hosting the party.

Opening as the novel does with an evocative retelling of Woolf's suicide, the book is tinged with a longing for death. Death offers the ultimate escape, one that Woolf ponders for her protagonist, one that Laura Brown considers and attempts, and one that Richard actually accomplishes. Throughout Cunningham's oeuvre various characters become aware of the thin line that separates life from death, and that crossing that line is not the daunting experience they had always imagined it would be.

Laura Brown sees that it would be, in fact, quite easy to end her own life; that the release suicide offers might compensate for whatever pain might be endured "Think how wonderful it might be to no longer matter. Think how wonderful it might be to no longer worry, or struggle, or fail". Suicide is treated as a temptation—the ultimate expression of free will, proof that we are not trapped in our lives.

This realization is both liberating and frightening for Cunningham's characters. As pawns of something they have set in motion frequently without any thought or conscious decisionthis realization offers a sense of relief that helps some live and some die. Cunningham's fiction explores the gaps between our creative expectations and the reality of our lives.

The creative endeavors of the characters in The Hours are representative of the plights of the majority of the men and women who people his books—individuals who have difficulty living in that space between perceptions of utter perfection and dismal failure. Novels Golden States. New York, Crown, A Home at the End of the World.

InCunningham earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Stanford University, and five years later, he completed his master's degree at the University of Iowa. Cunningham began publishing his work in the late s, with his stories appearing in renowned American literary magazines such as The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Paris Review.

Inhis novella "White Angel," which later became a chapter in his novel "A Home At the End Of the World," was included in the annual collection of the best American short stories. InCunningham published his first notable novel, "Golden States," which he considers a failure and has not been reissued. His second novel, "Flesh and Blood"a family saga exploring topics such as immigration, self-discovery, alternative culture, homosexuality, AIDS, and death, has yet to be translated into Russian.