Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison will give the fourth annual Shapiro Distinguished Lecture Friday, April 24, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., in Savage Arena on UT’s Main Campus.

Morrison was the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her novel, Beloved (1987), won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 and was named the best American novel published in the last 25 years by The New York Times Book Review.

Her book, A Mercy, released in November, was named one of the 10 best books of 2008.

Morrison, a native of Lorain, Ohio, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Howard University in 1953 and a Master of Arts degree in English from Cornell University in 1955.

Early in her career, she taught English at Texas Southern University and Howard University. She also worked as an editor at Random House, where she played a big role in bringing African-American literature into the mainstream. Morrison later returned to teaching, most notably as the Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University from 1989 until her retirement in 2006.

Some of her best-known works include The Bluest Eyes (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon  (1977) and Tar Baby (1981).

The Edward Shapiro Distinguished Lecture Series was established to bring noted scholars in the arts, sciences and humanities to The University of Toledo.

The series is named in memory of Dr. Edward Shapiro, UT alumnus and economics professor for 22 years in the College of Arts and Sciences, who donated more than $4 million to the college during his lifetime.

No tickets are needed for the free, public presentation. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with overflow seating available.