MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, American writer, born; An award-winning American writer writer, best known for his 1998 novel “The Hours,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the PEN?Faulkner Award in 1999.

Although Cunningham is Gay and has been partnered for 18 years, he dislikes being referred to as only a “Gay writer”, according to a  PlanetOut article because, while being Gay does greatly influence his work, he feels that it is not (and should not be) his defining characteristic.