The US Postal Service has honoured the late author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison with her own Forever stamp.
Morrison, who died in 2019 at the age of 88, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, becoming the first African American woman to do so.
While Black American life was at the centre of her art, she wrote multiple novels, including The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved.
The stamp was unveiled on Tuesday in a ceremony at Princeton University, where Morrison taught for nearly two decades. It was designed by USPS art director Ethel Kessler and features a portrait of Morrison taken in 1997 for a Time magazine cover, according to a news release from Princeton.
“It’s a privilege to represent the 650,000 men and women of the Postal Service, as we honour Toni Morrison with one more tribute — our new stamp that will be seen by millions and forever remind us of the power of her words and the ideas she brought to the world,” Pritha Mehra, USPS chief information officer and executive vice president, said in a statement.
“The Postal Service strives to honour extraordinary and enduring contributions to American society, and Morrison certainly meets that high standard,” USPS said in a statement. “In her artfully crafted novels, she explored the diverse voices and multifaceted experiences of African Americans and added a vital African American voice to American literature.”
In 2012, former President Barack Obama awarded Morrison the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour.
