Today's Monday Motivation is dedicated to authors like me but is a story that can help anyone who faces obstacles to their dream and will motivate you to keep striving for your dream to come true!
This is all about one of my writing heroes, Toni Morrison. Having read several of her books and knowing that her 1970 book, The Bluest Eye met resistance and controversy, when it was released, she persevered until finally receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Honouring Toni Morrison
Back in 1993, when Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature, it was a moment of triumph for her—and for countless writers who saw in her victory a testament to the power of persistence. It reminded me of my own journey with Holding Paradise and how deeply personal experiences can shape the stories we tell.
Toni Morrison’s journey to that prestigious award wasn’t an easy one. She was a single mother of two, working full-time as an editor while finding the time—often in the early morning hours—to write the books that would later become masterpieces. Her upbringing, like mine, was steeped in storytelling. She often spoke about how her father told her folktales of Black life in America, stories rich with history and struggle, joy and resilience. It was this tradition of oral storytelling that shaped her work, just like my mum’s vivid stories from her Caribbean island shaped mine.
Morrison’s early career wasn’t without rejection. Her novels were initially met with hesitation from critics and publishers who didn’t fully grasp the importance of the narratives she was weaving. But Morrison never stopped writing. She believed in her voice, her heritage, and the stories she knew needed to be told. In fact, it was precisely the adversity she faced that fuelled her creativity.
When I think about Morrison’s journey, I’m reminded of how my own writing has been shaped by both challenges and personal connections. Like Morrison, I’ve had moments of doubt and times when the writing felt like a long, uphill climb. But just as her characters came alive on the page, so too do the voices from my own past—the voices of my mum and all the stories she told us. It took Morrison decades to reach the recognition she deserved, but she kept going because she understood the importance of her stories. In a way, that resonates with me deeply. I imagine if my mum had been able to read Holding Paradise, she would have recognized the same persistence, the same desire to bring our experiences to life in a world that didn’t always seem to understand them.
Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize win reminds us all that success, especially as writers, is about more than fame or accolades. It’s about perseverance. It’s about staying true to the stories we need to tell, no matter how long it takes or how many obstacles we face. So, as we start this new week, let’s take a moment to honour Toni Morrison’s legacy. She’s proof that adversity can be transformed into art, and that storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to make sense of the world around us.
Don't give up. Keep dreaming. Your can do this.
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