Michael Cunningham is an American novelist and screenwriter, born on November 6, 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in La Cañada, California. He is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. He credits Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway with inspiring him to pursue writing.

Cunningham earned his B.A. in English Literature from Stanford University and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. His first novel, A Home at the End of the World, was published in 1990 to wide acclaim. Followed by Flesh and Blood in 1995, and the celebrated The Hours. His other notable works include Specimen Days, By Nightfall, The Snow Queen, and A Wild Swan and Other Tales.

Aside from fiction, he authored a non-fiction book titled Land's End: A Walk Through Provincetown. His articles and stories have appeared in various notable publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Paris Review.

An opera version of The Hours, with music by Kevin Puts, debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in November 2022, and a film adaptation directed by Stephen Daldry received critical acclaim.

Michael Cunningham has been honored with numerous awards, including a Whiting Writers Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is currently a senior lecturer in the English department at Yale University.