Toni Morrison Dies at 88, Poems Carry On

Author Toni Morrison has died at the age of 88, reports the New York Times. "In awarding the Nobel to Ms. Morrison, the Swedish Academy cited her 'novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import,' through which she 'gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.'" writes Margalit Fox. More:

Ms. Morrison animated that reality in a style resembling that of no other writer in English. Her prose, often luminous and incantatory, rings with the cadences of black oral tradition. Her plots are dreamlike and nonlinear, spooling backward and forward in time as though characters bring the entire weight of history to bear on their every act.

More to come at the NYT. Morrison was the author of one book of poetry, Five Poems (Rainmaker Editions, 2002), with illustrations by Kara Walker. You can view pages from the work online at MoMA. "It comes / Unadorned / Like a phrase / Strong enough to cast a spell;" she will be missed.