The acclaimed and pioneering American author Toni Morrison passed away on Monday night, aged 88.
Her family and publisher Knopf confirmed that the author had died in Montefiori Medical Centre, New York, following a short illness.
Morrison's oeuvre includes 11 novels, among which the Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved (1987), plays, short stories, and a libretto. The Source of Self-Regard - a collection of the author's essays, speeches and musings on society, culture and art - was published in February of this year.
Recognised for the pivotal role she played in chronicling the lived experience of black Americans, specifically women, Morrison herself became the first black woman to receive a Nobel Prize upon receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
Equally admired as she was acclaimed, the tributes paid to this remarkable author attests to the impact she had on shaping modern literature and readers alike:
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