- Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931
- Graduated from Lorain High School in 1949
- Earned Bachelor of Arts in English from Howard University in 1953
- Earned Masters of Arts in English from Cornell University in 1955
- English instructor at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas from 1955–57
- Senior editor at Random House beginning from 1967-83
- Authored The Bluest Eye in 1970
- Authored Sula in 1974
- Authored Song of Solomon in 1977
- Awarded National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon in 1977
- Appointed to National Council on the Arts
- Authored Tar Baby in 1981
- Wrote play Dreaming Emmett, it premiered in 1986
- Authored Beloved in 1987
- Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved in 1988
- Awarded MLA Commonwealth Award in Literature in 1989
- Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993
- Awarded Pearl Buck Award in 1994
- Authored The Big Box in 1999
- Awarded National Humanities Medal in 2000
- Authored The Book of Mean People in 2002
- Received Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University in 2005
- Awarded Norman Mailer Prize – Lifetime Achievement in 2009
- Received Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Geneva in 2011
- Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012