For his 1998 novel The Hours, Michael Cunningham won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award. The 2002 film version of the book was directed by Stephen Daldry and starred several Evening cast members (Eileen Atkins, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, and Meryl Streep). The Hours won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Nicole Kidman) and the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture (Drama), among other honors around the world.
The Cincinnati, Ohio native grew up in La Cañada, California. He received his B.A. in English literature from Stanford University, and his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Iowa.
Mr. Cunningham's novel A Home at the End of the World was published in 1990 to wide acclaim. The 2004 film version, for which Mr. Cunningham wrote the screenplay adaptation, was directed by Michael Mayer and starred Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts, and Sissy Spacek. Evening producer Jeffrey Sharp was also producer of A Home at the End of the World.
His next novel, Flesh and Blood, was published in 1995 and is currently being developed as a cable television miniseries. His sole nonfiction book to date, Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown, was published in 2002. Mr. Cunningham's latest novel, Specimen Days, was published in 2005.
His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and The Paris Review. A short story, "White Angel," was selected for the 1989 edition of The Best American Short Stories; another short story, "Mister Brother," was published in the Prize Stories 2000: The O. Henry Awards collection.
Mr. Cunningham has, over the years, received a Whiting Writers' Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; and a Michener Fellowship from The University of Iowa.
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