Tributes have begun to pour in for Toni Morrison, American novelist, who passed away on Monday night at the age of 88.

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Alfred A. Knopf, the author’s publisher, who confirmed her death, said she passed away at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center where she was receiving medical attention.

In a statement issued by her family through Knopf, it was revealed that the award-winning novelist and professor died after having suffered a brief illness.

“Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends,” the family announced.

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“She was an extremely devoted mother, grandmother, and aunt who reveled in being with her family and friends. The consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing.”

Morrison is a multiple award-winning author who wrote a total of 11 novels over the course of her career alongside five children’s book, two works of fiction, nine non-fiction books, a song cycle, an opera, among other literary works of hers.

Her novel ‘Beloved’, which was eventually adapted into a movie, won her the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 after portraying the stark realities of the average black American citizen.

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She was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 while the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government’s highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996.

This was followed by her receipt of the 1996 National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters even as she wrote her first book ‘The Bluest Eye’ just before clocking 40.

Morrison was born on February 18, 2019, in the rust-belt town of Lorain, Ohio as the second of four children. She was survived by two children.

Following the news of her death, fans and celebrities alike have taken to social media platforms to share loving messages dedicated to the late author.

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Here is what they had to say:

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