The Zora Challenge Syllabus
A collection of books, articles, films, podcasts, and more by and about Zora Neale Hurston
Updated on January 21, 2024: Added N.Y. Nathiri’s 1991 book Zora! Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman and Her Community.
Updated on December 3, 2023: Added Anthea Kraut’s 2008 book Choreographing the Folk: The Dance Stagings of Zora Neale Hurston.
Updated on August 24, 2023: Added the 2023 interview with Sharony Green author of the forthcoming book The Chase and Ruins: Zora Neale Hurston in Honduras.
Updated on July 31, 2023: Added the 2005 documentary Zora Neale Hurston: Heart with Room for Every Joy and the 2017 podcast A Woman Half in Shadow.
Updated on July 23, 2023: Added the 2016 documentary The Lost Years of Zora Neale Hurston.
Updated on July 16, 2023: Added Tracey Rose Peytons’s 2023 article in LitHub and Angela Johnson’s 2023 article in The Root.
Updated on June 19, 2023: Added Rae Chesney’s 2023 article in Strut in HER Shoes.
Updated on May 24, 2023: Added Dr. David Johns 2023 article in The Griot.
Updated on April 26, 2023: Added Zora Neale Hurston’s 1930 scholarly article from The Journal of American Folklore.
Updated on April 17, 2023: Added Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Kwame Anthony Appiah’s edited book, Pamela Bordelon’s edited book, and Brenda Knight’s book.
Updated on April 16, 2023: Added Sarah Bakewell’s book.
Updated on April 13, 2023: Added Great Lives podcast, Frederick Douglass Opie’s book, and Dennis Brindell Fradin & Judith Bloom Fradin’s book.
Updated on April 9, 2023: Added Susan Edwards Meisenhelder’s book, Melissa Bunni Elian’s article, and John McWhorter’s article.
Updated on April 1, 2023: Added the Zora and Me series by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon.
Updated on March 27, 2023: Added two GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp podcast episodes.
On January 15 of this year, I created “The Zora Challenge”. In this challenge, readers are encouraged to read any books that they have not read by Hurston, rereads are also encouraged. Challenge participants can document their participation by using the hashtag #TheZoraChallenge in their social media posts. There is also a StoryGraph challenge for those who use that platform as well.
Follow the challenge’s social media feeds below:
- #TheZoraChallenge IG feed: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/thezorachallenge/
- #TheZoraChallenge Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23thezorachallenge&src=typed_query
- #TheZoraChallenge TikTok feed: https://www.tiktok.com/tag/thezorachallenge
Below are the 13 books written by Hurston plus additional resources (written, visual, and audio) about Hurston for those who want to take a deep dive into her life and career. This is a living document and will be updated periodically as the author sees fit.
Table of Contents
· 13 Books by Zora Neale Hurston for The Zora Challenge
· Children’s Book Adaptations of Zora Neale Hurston’s Writings
· Scholarly Articles by Zora Neale Hurston
· Books About Zora Neale Hurston
· Zora and Me Trilogy
· Articles about Zora Neale Hurston
· Films and Videos by and about Zora Neale Hurston
· Podcasts about Zora Neale Hurston
· Websites and Blogs on Zora Neale Hurston
13 Books by Zora Neale Hurston for The Zora Challenge
Here are the books you can choose from (in chronological order by publication year and genre):
- Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934)- Fiction
“Jonah’s Gourd Vine, Zora Neale Hurston’s first novel, originally published in 1934, tells the story of John Buddy Pearson, “a living exultation” of a young man who loves too many women for his own good. Lucy, his long-suffering wife, is his true love, but there’s also Mehaley and Big ‘Oman, as well as the scheming Hattie, who conjures hoodoo spells to ensure his attentions. Even after becoming the popular pastor of Zion Hope, where his sermons and prayers for cleansing rouse the congregation’s fervor, John has to confess that though he is a preacher on Sundays, he is a “natchel man” the rest of the week. And so in this sympathetic portrait of a man and his community, Zora Neale Hurston shows that faith, tolerance, and good intentions cannot resolve the tension between the spiritual and the physical. That she makes this age-old dilemma come so alive is a tribute to her understanding of the vagaries of human nature.” -Book Description
2. Mules and Men (1935)- Folklore
“Mules and Men is the first great collection of black America’s folk world. In the 1930’s, Zora Neale Hurston returned to her “native village” of Eatonville, Florida to record the oral histories, sermons and songs, dating back to the time of slavery, which she remembered hearing as a child. In her quest, she found herself and her history throughout these highly metaphorical folk-tales, “big old lies,” and the lyrical language of song. With this collection, Zora Neale Hurston has come to reveal’and preserve’a beautiful and important part of American culture.” -Book Description
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)- Fiction
“When first published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman was generally dismissed by male reviewers. Out of print for almost thirty years, but since its reissue in paperback edition by the University of Illinois Press in 1978, Their Eyes Were Watching God has become the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.
With haunting sympathy and piercing immediacy, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford’s evolving selfhood through three marriages. Light-skinned, long-haired, dreamy as a child, Janie grows up expecting better treatment than she gets until she meets Tea Cake, a younger man who engages her heart and spirit in equal measure and gives her the chance to enjoy life without being a man’s mule or adornment. Though Jaine’s story does not end happily, it does draw to a satisfying conclusion. Janie is one black woman who doesn’t have to live lost in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, instead Janie proclaims that she has done ‘two things everbody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.’” -Book Description
4. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938)- Nonfiction
“As a first-hand account of the weird mysteries and horrors of voodoo, Tell My Horse is an invaluable resource and fascinating guide. Based on Zora Neale Hurston’s personal experiences in Haiti and Jamaica, where she participated as an initiate rather than just an observer of voodoo practices during her visits in the 1930s, this travelogue into a dark world paints a vividly authentic picture of ceremonies and customs and superstitions of great cultural interest.” -Book Description
5. Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939)- Fiction
“In this 1939 novel based on the familiar story of the Exodus, Zora Neale Hurston blends the Moses of the Old Testament with the Moses of black folklore and song to create a compelling allegory of power, redemption, and faith. Narrated in a mixture of biblical rhetoric, black dialect, and colloquial English, Hurston traces Moses’ life from the day he Is launched into the Nile river in a reed basket, to his development as a great magician, to his transformation into the heroic rebel leader, the Great Emancipator. From his dramatic confrontations with Pharaoh to his fragile negotiations with the wary Hebrews, this very human story is told with great humor, passion, and psychological insight–the hallmarks of Hurston as a writer and champion of black culture.” -Book Description
6. Dust Tracks On A Road (1942)- Autobiography
“First published in 1942 at the height of her popularity, Dust Tracks on a Road is Zora Neale Hurston’s candid, funny, bold, and poignant autobiography, an imaginative and exuberant account of her rise from childhood poverty in the rural South to a prominent place among the leading artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance. As compelling as her acclaimed fiction, Hurston’s very personal literary self-portrait offers a revealing, often audacious glimpse into the life — public and private — of an extraordinary artist, anthropologist, chronicler, and champion of the black experience in America. Full of the wit and wisdom of a proud, spirited woman who started off low and climbed high, Dust Tracks on a Road is a rare treasure from one of literature’s most cherished voices.” -Book Description
7. Seraph on the Suwanee (1948)- Fiction
“This novel of turn-of-the-century white “Florida Crackers” marks a daring departure for the author famous for her complex accounts of black culture and heritage. Full of insights into the nature of love, attraction, faith, and loyalty, Seraph on the Suwanee is the compelling story of two people at once deeply in love and deeply at odds. The heroine, young Arvay Henson, is convinced she will never find true love and happiness, and defends herself from unwanted suitors by throwing hysterical fits and professing religious fervor. Arvay meets her match, however, in handsome Jim Meserve, a bright, enterprising young man who knows that Arvay is the woman for him, and refuses to allow her to convince him otherwise. With the same passion and understanding that have made Their Eyes Were Watching God a classic, Hurston explores the evolution of a marriage full of love but very little communication and the desires of a young woman In search of herself and her place in the world.” -Book Description
8. Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life with Langston Hughes (1991, written in 1930)- Play
“Mule Bone is the only collaboration between Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, two stars of the Harlem Renaissance, and it holds an unparalleled place in the annals of African-American theater. Set in Eatonville, Florida–Hurston’s hometown and the inspiration for much of her fiction–this energetic and often farcical play centers on Jim and Dave, a two-man song-and-dance team, and Daisy, the woman who comes between them. Overcome by jealousy, Jim hits Dave with a mule bone and hilarity follows chaos as the town splits into two factions: the Methodists, who want to pardon Jim; and the Baptists, who wish to banish him for his crime.
Included in this edition is the fascinating account of the Mule Bone copyright dispute between Hurston and Hughes that ended their friendship and prevented the play from being performed until its debut production at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York City in 1991–sixty years after it was written. Also included is “The Bone of Contention,” Hurston’s short story on which the play was based; personal and often heated correspondence between the authors; and critical essays that illuminate the play and the dazzling period that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.” -Book Description
9. The Complete Stories (1995, written between 1921–1955)- Short Stories
“This landmark gathering of Zora Neale Hurston’s short fiction — most of which appeared only in literary magazines during her lifetime — reveals the evolution of one of the most important African American writers. Spanning her career from 1921 to 1955, these stories attest to Hurston’s tremendous range and establish themes that recur in her longer fiction. With rich language and imagery, the stories in this collection not only map Hurston’s development and concerns as a writer, but also provide an invaluable reflection of the mind and imagination of the author of the acclaimed novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.” -Book Description
10. Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States (2001, collected from 1927–1930)-Folklore
“African-American folklore was Zora Neale Hurston’s first love. Collected in the late 1920s, Every Tongue Got to Confess is the third volume of folk-tales from the celebrated author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. It is published here for the first time.
These hilarious, bittersweet, often saucy folk-tales — some of which date back to the Civil War — provide a fascinating, verdant slice of African-American life in the rural South at the turn of the twentieth century. Arranged according to subject — from God Tales, Preacher Tales, and Devil Tales to Heaven Tales, White-Folk Tales, and Mistaken Identity Tales — they reveal attitudes about slavery, faith, race relations, family, and romance that have been passed on for generations. They capture the heart and soul of the vital, independent, and creative community that so inspired Zora Neale Hurston.
In the foreword, author John Edgar Wideman discusses the impact of Hurston’s pioneering effort to preserve the African-American oral tradition and shows readers how to read these folk tales in the historical and literary context that has — and has not — changed over the years. And in the introduction, Hurston scholar Carla Kaplan explains how these folk-tales were collected, lost, and found, and examines their profound significance today.
In Every Tongue Got to Confess, Zora Neale Hurston records, with uncanny precision, the voices of ordinary people and pays tribute to the richness of Black vernacular — its crisp self-awareness, singular wit, and improvisational wordplay. These folk-tales reflect the joys and sorrows of the African-American experience, celebrate the redemptive power of storytelling, and showcase the continuous presence in America of an Africanized language that flourishes to this day.” -Book Description
11. Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” (2018, collected in 1927–1931)- Nonfiction
“In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation’s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo’s firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.
In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo’s past — memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War.
Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo’s unique vernacular, and written from Hurston’s perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.” -Book Description
12. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick (2020, written between the 1920s-1930s)- Short Stories
“In 1925, Barnard student Zora Neale Hurston — the sole black student at the college — was living in New York, “desperately striving for a toe-hold on the world.” During this period, she began writing short works that captured the zeitgeist of African American life and transformed her into one of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Nearly a century later, this singular talent is recognized as one of the most influential and revered American artists of the modern period.
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is an outstanding collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, racism and sexism that proudly reflect African American folk culture. Brought together for the first time in one volume, they include eight of Hurston’s “lost” Harlem stories, which were found in forgotten periodicals and archives. These stories challenge conceptions of Hurston as an author of rural fiction and include gems that flash with her biting, satiric humor, as well as more serious tales reflective of the cultural currents of Hurston’s world. All are timeless classics that enrich our understanding and appreciation of this exceptional writer’s voice and her contributions to America’s literary traditions.” -Book Description
13. You Don’t Know Us Negroes (2022, written between 1922–1958)- Essays
“You Don’t Know Us Negroes is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world’s most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the backdrop of the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the military, and school integration, Hurston’s writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people’s inner lives and culture rather than destroying it. She argues that in the process of surviving, Black people re-interpreted every aspect of American culture — “modif[ying] the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion.” White supremacy prevents the world from seeing or completely recognizing Black people in their full humanity and Hurston made it her job to lift the veil and reveal the heart and soul of the race. These pages reflect Hurston as the controversial figure she was — someone who stated that feminism is a mirage and that the integration of schools did not necessarily improve the education of Black students. Also covered is the sensational trial of Ruby McCollum, a wealthy Black woman convicted in 1952 for killing her lover, a white doctor.
Demonstrating the breadth of this revered and influential writer’s work, You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays is an invaluable chronicle of a writer’s development and a window into her world and mind.” -Book Description
You can also find some of her books and writings on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%28zora+neale+hurston%29
Children’s Book Adaptations of Zora Neale Hurston’s Writings
Magnolia Flower by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted by Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Loveis Wise (2022)
“From beloved African American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston comes a moving adaptation by National Book Award winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Antiracist Baby, Ibram X. Kendi. Magnolia Flower follows a young Afro Indigenous girl who longs for freedom and is gorgeously illustrated by Loveis Wise (The People Remember, Ablaze with Color).
Born to parents who fled slavery and the Trail of Tears, Magnolia Flower is a girl with a vibrant spirit. Not to be deterred by rigid ways of the world, she longs to connect with others, who too long for freedom. She finds this in a young man of letters who her father disapproves of. In her quest to be free, Magnolia must make a choice and set off on a journey that will prove just how brave one can be when leading with one’s heart.
The acclaimed writer of several American classics, Zora Neale Hurston wrote this stirring folktale brimming with poetic prose, culture, and history. It was first published as a short story in The Spokesman in 1925 and later in her collection Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick (2020).
Tenderly retold by #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi, Magnolia Flower is a story of a transformative and radical devotion between generations of Indigenous and Black people in America. With breathtaking illustrations by Loveis Wise, this picture book reminds us that there is no force strong enough to stop love.” -Book Description
The Making of Butterflies by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted by Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Kah Yangni (2023)
“A First Folktale from the creators of Magnolia Flower, Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi, about the origin of butterflies. The Creator wuz all finished and thru makin’ de world. But soon, the Creator finds themselves flying through the sky, making gorgeous butterflies of every color, shape, and size. Find out why butterflies were made in Zora Neale Hurston’s stunning and layered African American folktale retold by #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Award–winning author Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Kah Yangni. This accessible and sizable board book is perfect for introducing the youngest of readers to the beauty of Hurston’s storytelling and will spark curiosity in children about how things in our world came to be.” -Book Description
Scholarly Articles by Zora Neale Hurston
- Hurston, Zora. 1927. “Cudjo’s Own Story of the Last African Slaver” The Journal of Negro History Vol. 12, №4, pp. 648–663 https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2714041.pdf
- Hurston, Zora. 1930. “Dance Songs and Tales from the Bahamas” The Journal of American Folklore Vol. 43, №169, pp. 294–312 https://www.jstor.org/stable/534942
- Hurston, Zora. 1931. “Hoodoo in America” The Journal of American Folklore. Vol. 44, №174, pp. 317–417. https://www.jstor.org/stable/535394
- Hurston, Zora. 1991. “Folklore and Music” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Vol. 12, №1, pp. 182–198. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346585
- Hurston, Zora. 1991. “Florida’s Migrant Farm Labor” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Vol. 12, №1, pp. 199–203. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346586
- Hurston, Zora. 2011. “from ‘HEROD THE GREAT’” Callaloo Vol. 34, №1, pp. 121–125. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41242599
Books About Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography by Robert E. Hemenway (1977)
“Zora Neale Hurston transformed each hour of her life into something bubbling, exuberant, and brimming with joy. Robert Hemenway’s biography is a towering portrait of the novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Drawing on archival documents and interviews with people who knew her, Hemenway explores Hurston’s art and work, from her extraordinary novels and autobiography to a popular treatment of black folkways that revealed her deep commitment to the black folk tradition. He also provides a sensitive look at her two marriages; her relationships with Mrs. R. Osgood Mason, Franz Boas, and Langston Hughes; her time as a member of the black literati of the 1920s and 1930s; and the penniless final years leading to her death.
Sophisticated and original, Zora Neale Hurston tells the compelling story of a woman who reveled in a fully lived life dedicated to a lasting art and the preservation of a vital cultural heritage.” -Book Description
Zora! Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman and Her Community edited by N.Y. Nathiri (1991)
“Traces the life and career of the Black novelist, anthropologist, and folklorist, and describes her relationship to the small Florida town where she grew up.” -Book Description
Hitting A Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Race and Gender in the Work of Zora Neale Hurston by Susan Edwards Meisenhelder (1999)
“Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is the first single-authored book-length study of Zora Neale Hurston and provides the most thorough and meticulous examination of her full body of work. A number of earlier critics have concluded that Hurston simply capitulated to external demands, writing stories white people wanted to hear. Susan Edwards Meisenhelder, however, argues that Hurston’s response to her situation was much more sophisticated than her detractors have recognized. Meisenhelder suggests, in fact, that Hurston’s work, both fictional and anthropological, constitutes an extended critique of the values of white culture and a rejection of white models for black people. Repeatedly, Hurston’s work shows the divisive effects that traditional white values, including class divisions and gender imbalances, have on blacks.
While Hurston openly criticized white culture in letters, in articles for black publications, and in the manuscript version of her autobiography, her attack is more indirect in most of her work, which was largely published by white publishers and in white periodicals. Meisenhelder convincingly demonstrates that Hurston, drawing a lesson from African American folk tales dealing with black survival in a white world, plays the role of the artful trickster in such publications. In the tales of Daddy Mention, High John de Conquer, and other figures that she recorded and commented on in her anthropological works, Hurston found models of black people self-consciously donning a mask of subservience, even living up to racist stereotypes, to make fun of and win something from whites. Seeing Hurston as such a trickster figure in her writing invites substantial reinterpretation of many of her works.
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is a ground-breaking study valuable for classroom use and recommended for all academic libraries — undergraduate, graduate, and research.” -Book Description
Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings by Zora Neale Hurston from the Federal Writers’ Project edited by Pamela Bordelon (1999)
“A wonderful discovery of folklore writings-many previously unpublished-by Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God . When Pamala Bordelon was researching a work on the Florida Federal Writers Project, she discovered writings in the collection that were unmistakably from the hand of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Over half of the works included here have not been published or are only available in the Library of America edition of Hurston’s works. As Hurston’s fans know, all of her novels draw upon her deep interest in folklore, particularly from her home state of Florida. Here we see the roots of that work, from the wonderful folktale of the monstrous alligator living in a local lake to her recording of folk songs to her work on children’s games and the black church. There are also fiery and controversial essays on race and the work of black artists. In a biographical essay, Pamala Bordelon, with the help of Hurston’s niece, has re-created the years during which Hurston was working for the FWP and living in Eatonville. She has put together the portrait of a serious writer and folklorist who was running tight on money, but big on spirit. This book is an important new addition to Hurston’s work.” -Book Description
Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past And Present edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Kwame Anthony Appiah (2000)
“Zora Neale Hurston is a literary legend. One of the leading forces of the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston was also one of the most widely acclaimed Black authors in America from the mid twenties to the mid forties. She faded into obscurity in the subsequent decades, but literary figures and scholars in the 1970s revived her work and introduced a whole generation to her brilliance. Today she is the most widely taught Black woman writer in the canon of American literature. Born in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida, of which her father was mayor, Hurston was intensely proud. She became the first Black student at Barnard College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. She conducted significant research, interviews, and fieldwork relating to Black cultures of the United States and the Caribbean. In her writings, instead of bemoaning the frustrations of the Black experience, Hurston chose to celebrate the many cultures of her people as well as the richness of their verbal expressions. Although Hurston died poor and forgotten in 1960, the visibility of the feminist movement and the interest of women writers such as Alice Walker — who was responsible for providing a headstone for Hurston’s unmarked grave in 1974 — were instrumental in reestablishing Hurston’s place in African-American literature. Hurston’s life and work are revealed through the reviews and essays contained in Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and K.A. Appiah have chosen reviews of her works from such important publications of her days as The Crisis, New Masses, New Republic, the New York Herald Tribune, The New York Times Book Review, Opportunity, and Saturday Review of Literature. Hurston’s first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), earned comments ranging from “most vital” to “a disappointment,” although the reviewers consistently praised her use of dialect and language. This unique collection includes reviews of Mules and Men (1935), the first collection of African-American folklore published by an African American. Their Eyes Were Watching God, her 1937 novel that addressed a woman’s desire for independence and individuality, was favorably reviewed by Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes scholar and one of Hurston’s professors at Howard University, and unfavorably reviewed by Richard Wright, who testily complained that the book was addressed to a white audience. The autobiographical Dust Tracks On a Road (1942) was received favorably, with comments on Hurston’s “gutsy language.” Reviews of Seraph on the Suwanne, Hurston’s 1948 novel featuring primarily white characters, are also included, as well as those of earlier works such as Tell My Horses and Moses, Man of the Mountain. The essays presented here were published between 1982 and 1992 by academics, authors, and critics. They provide discussions and analysis, at greater length, of such factors as Hurston’s language, characters, voice, and her ability to reflect the reality of Black women’s lives.” -Book Description
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters collected and edited by Carla Kaplan (2002)
“A landmark collection of more than five hundred letters written by a woman at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance — an author who remains one of the most intriguing people in American cultural history.
Alice Walker’s 1975 “Ms.” magazine article “Looking for Zora” reintroduced Zora Neale Hurston to the American literary landscape, and ushered in a virtual renaissance for a writer who was a bestselling author at her peak in the 1930s, but died penniless and in obscurity some three decades later.
Since that rediscovery of novelist, anthropologist, playwright, folklorist, essayist, and poet Zora Neale Hurston, her books — from the classic love story” Their Eyes Were Watching God” to her controversial autobiography, “Dust Tracks on the Road” — have sold millions of copies. Hurston is now taught in American, African American, and women’s studies courses in high schools and universities from coast to coast.
Now, in “Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters,” the fascinating life of one of the most enigmatic literary figures of the twentieth century comes alive. Through letters to Harlem Renaissance friends Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Dorothy West, and Carl Van Vechten, and to bestselling author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Fannie Hurst, among others, readers experience the exuberance and trials of Hurston’s life. Her letters to her patron, Mrs. Charlotte “Godmother” Osgood Mason, are laced with equal amounts of cynicism and reverence, and offer a fascinating glimpse of the perilously thin line Hurston tread to maintain vital monetary support as she pursued her art and avant-garde lifestyle (which included crossing the country collecting folklore, and a job as story editor at Paramount Pictures in the 1940s).
Meticulously edited and annotated, this landmark collection of letters will provide her fans, as well as those discovering Hurston for the first time, with a penetrating and profound portrait into the life, writings (four novels, a play, an autobiography, and countless essays), and impressive imagination of one of the most amazing characters to grace American letters.” -Book Description
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd (2002)
“A woman of enormous talent and remarkable drive, Zora Neale Hurston published seven books, many short stories, and several articles and plays over a career that spanned more than thirty years. Today, nearly every black woman writer of significance — including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker — acknowledges Hurston as a literary foremother, and her 1937 masterpiece Their Eyes Were Watching God has become a crucial part of the modern literary canon.
Wrapped in Rainbows, the first biography of Zora Neale Hurston in more than twenty-five years, illuminates the adventures, complexities, and sorrows of an extraordinary life. Acclaimed journalist Valerie Boyd delves into Hurston’s history — her youth in the country’s first incorporated all-black town, her friendships with luminaries such as Langston Hughes, her sexuality and short-lived marriages, and her mysterious relationship with vodou. With the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, and World War II as historical backdrops, Wrapped in Rainbows not only positions Hurston’s work in her time but also offers riveting implications for our own.” -Book Description
Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Lucy Hurston (niece of Zora Neale Hurston) (2004)
“One of the most beguiling and captivating figures of the twentieth century, Zora Neale Hurston gained fame as a bestselling author, anthropologist, journalist, and playwright. Her remarkable life is presented as never before in SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN. An interactive package tracing Hurston’s journey from Eatonville, Florida, to her student days at Barnard College, to her emergence as a literary star and bestselling author and cultural icon during the Harlem Renaissance and her subsequent decline into obscurity, it contains beautifully crafted facsimiles of historic papers, handwritten notes, photographs, and much more.
Readers will be able to hold in their hands the charred draft notes for the novel, “Seraph on the Suwannee”; open a Christmas card Hurston created for her friends; and read letters illuminating her relationships with intimate friends and fellow writers like Langston Hughes and Dorothy West. SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN also provides the extraordinary opportunity to hear Hurston’s own voice talking about her life as a writer on several radio interviews, and, in a powerful interlude, singing a passionate rendition of a railroad worker’s chant she learned while collecting folklore in the Deep South.
Interest in Hurston continues to soar. Her most famous book, “Their Eyes Are Watching God,” is now in development at Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, and is also being adapted for Broadway. The sales of her books attest to an ever-growing audience. Whether they are discovering Hurston for the first time or are devoted fans, readers will find hours of entertainment in SPEAK, SO YOU CAN SPEAK AGAIN.” -Book Description
Zora Neale Hurston and American Literary Culture by M. Genevieve West (2005)
“Genevieve West examines the cultural history of Zora Neale Hurston’s writing and the reception of her work, in an attempt to explain why Hurston died in obscure poverty only to be reclaimed as an important Harlem Renaissance writer decades after her death. Unlike other books on Hurston, this study focuses on how Hurston was marketed and reviewed during her career and how literary scholars reappraised her after her death.
While her publisher’s approach to marketing Hurston as an African American fiction writer and folklorist increased her popularity among the general reading public, her fellow Harlem Renaissance authors often excoriated her as an exploiter of African American culture and a propagator of black stereotypes. Eventually, the criticism outweighed the popularity, and her writing fell out of fashion. It was only after critics reconsidered her work in the 1960s and 1970s that she eventually regained her status as one of the best writers of her generation. No other book has focused on this aspect of Hurston’s career, nor has any book so systematically used marketing materials and reviews to track Hurston’s literary reputation. As a result, West’s study will provide a new perspective on Hurston and on the ways that the politics of race, class, and gender impact canon formation in American literary culture.
This study is based on numerous interviews, short fiction previously undocumented in Hurston scholarship, an innovative analysis of advertisements and dust jackets, examinations of letters by and about Hurston, and the examination of historical/literary contexts, including the Harlem Renaissance, the protest movement, the assimilationist movement, the Black Arts movement, and the rise of black feminist thought.” -Book Description
Wild Women and Books: Bibliophiles, Bluestockings, and Prolific Pens from Aphra Ben to Zora Neale Hurston and From Anne Rice To the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Brenda Knight (2006)
“A provocative and inspiring exploration of women writers from the first writers in history to today’s greats — with a new introduction by Ntozake Shange.
Wild Women and Books celebrates some of the most revered and radical women writers of history. Beginning with the first recorded writer of either gender, Enheduanna of Sumeria, and ending with acclaimed contemporary writers like Toni Morrison and J.K. Rowling, this is a must-read for those who must read.
Brenda Knight brings more than a hundred female authors to life for today’s readers — from Aphra Ben to Zora Neal Hurston and from Ann Rice to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Knight recounts their tumultuous paths to literary acclaim in chapters such as Literary First Ladies; Ink in Their Veins; Banned, Blacklisted, and Arrested; and Women Whose Books Are Loved Too Much.
From religious transcribers and political dissidents to erotic playwrights and romantic poets, no subject or literary form is left untouched. In honor of those women whose pens pioneered, persevered, and proved that the female voice is brilliant, Knight invites you to explore the literary legacy of women.” -Book Description
Zora Neale Hurston: A Biography of the Spirit by Deborah G. Plant (2007)
“This new biography takes into account the whole woman — not just the prolific author of such great works as Their Eyes Were Watching God, Moses, Man of the Mountain, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, Mules and Men, as well as essays, folklore, short stories, and poetry — but the philosopher and the spiritual soul, examining how each is reflected in her career, fiction and nonfiction publications, social and political activity, and, ultimately, her death.
When we ask what animated the woman who achieved all that she did, we must necessarily probe further. Not one of the other existing biographies discusses or analyzes Hurston’s spirituality in any sustained sense, even though this spirituality played a significant role in her life and works. As author Deborah G. Plant shows, Zora Neale Hurston’s ability to achieve and to endure all she did came from the courage of her convictions — a belief in self that was profoundly centered and anchored in spirituality.” -Book Description
Choreographing the Folk: The Dance Stagings of Zora Neale Hurston by Anthea Kraut (2008)
“While Zora Neale Hurston and her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God have become widely celebrated, she was also a prolific stage director and choreographer. In the 1930s Hurston produced theatrical concerts that depicted a day in the life of a railroad work camp in Florida and featured a rousing Bahamian Fire Dance as the dramatic finale. In Choreographing the Folk, Anthea Kraut traces the significance and influence of Hurston’s little-known choreographic work.” -Book Description
The Inside Light: New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston edited by Deborah G. Plant (2010)
“The Inside Light New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston caps a decade of resurgent popularity and critical interest in Hurston to offer the most insightful critical analysis of her work to date. Encompassing all of Hurston’s writings — fiction, folklore manuscripts, drama, correspondence — it fully reaffirms the legacy of this phenomenal writer, whom The Color Purple’s Alice Walker called “A Genius of the South.”
The Inside Light offers 20 critical essays covering the breadth of Hurston’s writing, including her poetry, which up to now has received little attention. Essays throughout are informed by revealing new research, previously unseen manuscripts, and even film clips of Hurston. The book also focuses on aspects of Hurston’s life and work that remain controversial, including her stance on desegregation, her relationships with Charlotte Mason, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright, and the veracity of her autobiography, Dust Tracks On a Road.” -Book Description
Zora Neale Hurston’s Final Decade by Virginia Lynn Moylan (2011)
“In 1948, false accusations of child molestation all but erased the reputation and career Zora Neale Hurston had worked for decades to build. Sensationalized in the profit-seeking press and relentlessly pursued by a prosecution more interested in a personal crusade than justice, the morals charge brought against her nearly drove her to suicide.
But she lived on. She lived on past her accuser’s admission that he had fabricated his whole story. She lived on for another twelve years, during which time she participated in some of the most remarkable events, movements, and projects of the day.
Since her death, scholars and the public have rediscovered Hurston’s work and conscientiously researched her biography. Nevertheless, the last decade of her life has remained relatively unexplored. Virginia Moylan fills in the details — investigating subjects as varied as Hurston’s reporting on the trial of Ruby McCollum (a black woman convicted of murdering her white lover), her participation in designing an “anthropologically correct” black baby doll to combat stereotypes, her impassioned and radical biography of King Herod, and her controversial objections to court-ordered desegregation.” -Book Description
Zora!: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Dennis Brindell Fradin & Judith Bloom Fradin (2012)
“Zora Neale Hurston was confident, charismatic, and determined to be extraordinary. As a young woman, Hurston lived and wrote alongside such prominent authors as Langston Hughes and Alain Locke during the Harlem Renaissance. But unfortunately, despite writing the luminary work Their Eyes Were Watching God, she was always short of money. Though she took odd jobs as a housemaid and as the personal assistant to an actress, Zora often found herself in abject poverty. Through it all, Zora kept writing.
And though none of her books sold more than a thousand copies while she was alive, she was rediscovered a decade later by a new generation of readers, who knew they had found an important voice of American Literature.” -Book Description
Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food: Recipes, Remedies & Simple Pleasures by Frederick Douglass Opie (2015)
“Florida native Zora Neale Hurston’s early twentieth-century ethnographic research and writing emphasizes the essentials of food in Florida through simple dishes and recipes.
It considers foods prepared for everyday meals as well as special occasions and looks at what shaped people’s eating traditions in early twentieth-century Florida. Hurston did for Florida what William Faulkner did for Mississippi — provided insight into a state’s history and culture through various styles of writing. Her collected food stories, folklore and remedies, and the related recipes food professor Fred Opie pairs with them, are essential reading for those who love to cook and eat.” -Book Description
Zora and Langston: A Story of Friendship and Betrayal by Yuval Taylor (2019)
“Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God) and Langston Hughes (“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “Let America Be America Again”) were collaborators, literary gadflies, and close companions. They traveled together in Hurston’s dilapidated car through the rural South collecting folklore, worked on the play Mule Bone, and wrote scores of loving letters to each other. They even had the same patron: Charlotte Osgood Mason, a wealthy white woman who insisted on being called “Godmother.”
Paying them lavishly while trying to control their work, Mason may have been the spark for their bitter falling-out. Was the split inevitable when Hughes decided to be financially independent of their patron? Was Hurston jealous of the woman employed as their typist? Or was the rupture over the authorship of Mule Bone? Yuval Taylor answers these questions while illuminating Hurston’s and Hughes’s lives, work, competitiveness and ambition.” -Book Description
The Politics of Black Joy: Zora Neale Hurston and Neo-Abolitionism by Lindsey Stewart (2021)
“During the antebellum period, slave owners weaponized southern Black joy to argue for enslavement, propagating images of “happy darkies.” In contrast, abolitionists wielded sorrow by emphasizing racial oppression. Both arguments were so effective that a political uneasiness on the subject still lingers. In The Politics of Black Joy, Lindsey Stewart wades into these uncomfortable waters by analyzing Zora Neale Hurston’s uses of the concept of Black southern joy.
Stewart develops Hurston’s contributions to political theory and philosophy of race by introducing the politics of joy as a refusal of neo-abolitionism, a political tradition that reduces southern Black life to tragedy or social death. To develop the politics of joy, Stewart draws upon Zora Neale Hurston’s essays, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, and figures across several disciplines including Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, Saidiya Hartman, Imani Perry, Eddie Glaude, and Audra Simpson. The politics of joy offers insights that are crucial for forming needed new paths in our current moment. For those interested in examining popular conceptions of Black political agency at the intersection of geography, gender, class, and Black spirituality, The Politics of Black Joy is essential reading.” -Book Description
Dear Zora: Work In Progress Edition by Rae Chesny (2022)
“When author Rae Chesny is invited to introduce a Black literary figure for Michigan State University’s Black History Series, her research on Langston Hughes turns into a wildly personal adventure with Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God).
Fed up with the lack of female representation in the historic literature of the Harlem Renaissance, Rae makes herself a promise to promote Zora’s legacy by learning about it herself through travel research, presentations, and countless hours of study. Through some serendipitous and life-changing events, Rae begins to feel that Zora is calling her to do the work. With each passing year, Rae becomes more determined to deepen her relationship with her literary ancestor at all costs. Discovering Zora’s most authentic self in a collection of letters, Rae decides to forge their relationship by maintaining correspondence with Zora through letters of her own. Through the letters, and corresponding research, Rae finds that many of her own personal experiences seem to mirror those of her hero, Zora.
Complete with intimate journal entries, Dear Zora, is an unveiling of the inner worlds of both Rae Chesny and Zora Neale Hurston. Adventurous, compassionate, and real, this book takes you beyond a traditional scholar’s profile of a historical figure and into the profound and connected human experience of both author and subject.
***This version of Dear Zora is Rae Chesny’s Work In Progress manuscript (or rough draft).***
By publishing the Work-In-Progress Edition of Dear Zora, Rae hopes that readers will find the courage to write stories of their own and gain insight into the evolution of a manuscript into a polished book. It is essentially a look behind the author’s current from start to finish. Additionally, Rae hopes that this publishing experiment will directly contribute to added diversity in the publishing industry with more historically underrepresented groups producing books.
Readers who wish to know more about Rae’s work, process, and more information about Work In Progress publishing can join her private Facebook Group Work In Progress Literary Club on Facebook. See Rae’s Zora Neale Hurston events and more about the author at www.RaeChesny.com.
The Work in Progress version of Dear Zora will release as an eBook with a limited number of autographed collectable copies available through www.raechesny.com.
The finalized Dear Zora book is scheduled for release in Spring 2022.” -Book Description
Zora’s Garden by Rae Chesny, illustrated by Natalia Scabs (2023)
“With the loving wisdom of her mother, Lucy, Zora learns the perfect recipe for creating stories and growing gardens. Join in the fun as Zora learns about the power of storytelling and the delight of gardening.
This heartfelt adventure honors the real Zora Neale Hurston with the perfect mix of fact and fiction crafted by Zora Scholar Rae Chesny.” -Book Description
Ain’t I an Anthropologist: Zora Neale Hurston Beyond the Literary Icon by Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall (2023)
“Iconic as a novelist and popular cultural figure, Zora Neale Hurston remains underappreciated as an anthropologist. Is it inevitable that Hurston’s literary authority should eclipse her anthropological authority? If not, what socio-cultural and institutional values and processes shape the different ways we read her work? Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall considers the polar receptions to Hurston’s two areas of achievement by examining the critical response to her work across both fields. Drawing on a wide range of readings, Freeman Marshall explores Hurston’s popular appeal as iconography, her elevation into the literary canon, her concurrent marginalization in anthropology despite her significant contributions, and her place within constructions of Black feminist literary traditions. Perceptive and original, Ain’t I an Anthropologist is an overdue reassessment of Zora Neale Hurston’s place in American cultural and intellectual life.” -Book Description
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell (2023)
“Humanism is an expansive tradition of thought that places shared humanity, cultural vibrancy, and moral responsibility at the center of our lives. The humanistic worldview — as clear-eyed and enlightening as it is kaleidoscopic and richly ambiguous — has inspired people for centuries to make their choices by principles of freethinking, intellectual inquiry, fellow feeling, and optimism.
In this sweeping new history, Sarah Bakewell, herself a lifelong humanist, illuminates the very personal, individual, and, well, human matter of humanism and takes readers on a grand intellectual adventure.
Voyaging from the literary enthusiasts of the fourteenth century to the secular campaigners of our own time, from Erasmus to Esperanto, from anatomists to agnostics, from Christine de Pizan to Bertrand Russell, and from Voltaire to Zora Neale Hurston, Bakewell brings together extraordinary humanists across history. She explores their immense variety: some sought to promote scientific and rationalist ideas, others put more emphasis on moral living, and still others were concerned with the cultural and literary studies known as “the humanities.” Humanly Possible asks not only what brings all these aspects of humanism together but why it has such enduring power, despite opposition from fanatics, mystics, and tyrants.
A singular examination of this vital tradition as well as a dazzling contribution to its literature, this is an intoxicating, joyful celebration of the human spirit from one of our most beloved writers. And at a moment when we are all too conscious of the world’s divisions, Humanly Possible — brimming with ideas, experiments in living, and respect for the deepest ethical values — serves as a recentering, a call to care for one another, and a reminder that we are all, together, only human.” -Book Description
The Chase and Ruins: Zora Neale Hurston in Honduras by Sharony Green (Forthcoming Oct. 2023)
“A fascinating look at a pivotal period in Zora Neale Hurston’s life that reimagines her complicated legacy. Zora Neale Hurston, an anthropologist and writer best known for her classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God , led a complicated life often marked by tragedy and contradictions. When both she and her writing fell out of favor after the Harlem Renaissance, she struggled not only to regain an audience for her novels, but also to simply make ends meet. In The Chase and Ruins , Sharony Green uncovers an understudied but important period of Hurston’s life: her stay in Honduras in the late 1940s. On the eve of an awful accusation that nearly led to her suicide, Hurston fled to Honduras in search of a lost Mayan ruin. During her yearlong trip south of the US border, she appears to have never found the ruin she was chasing. But by escaping the Jim Crow south to Honduras, she avoided racist violence in the United States while still embracing her privilege―and power―as a US citizen in postwar Central America. While in Honduras, Hurston wrote Seraph on the Suwanee , her final novel and her only book to feature white characters, in an attempt to appeal to Hollywood’s growing appetite for “crackerphilia” (stories about poor white folks) and to finally secure herself some financial stability. In a letter to her editor, Hurston wrote that in Honduras, she may not have found the Mayan ruin she was looking for, but she finally found herself. Hurston’s experience in Honduras has much to teach us not only about Black women’s lives and the thorny politics of postwar America, but also America’s long and complicated entanglement with Central America. In an attempt to find historical meaning in an extraordinary woman’s conceptions of herself in a changing world, Green unearths letters, diaries, literary writings, research reports, and other archival materials. The Chase and Ruins encourages us to reckon with and reimagine Hurston’s fascinating life in all of its complexity and contradictions.” -Book Description
Interview with Sharony Green: https://writingworkshops.com/blogs/news/interview-with-sharony-green-on-her-new-book-the-chase-and-ruins-zora-neale-hurston-in-honduras
Zora and Me Trilogy
Zora and Me by Victoria Bond & T.R. Simon (2011)
“Whether she’s telling the truth or stretching it, Zora Neale Hurston is a riveting storyteller. Her latest creation is a shape-shifting gator man who lurks in the marshes, waiting to steal human souls. But when boastful Sonny Wrapped loses a wrestling match with an elusive alligator named Ghost — and a man is found murdered by the railroad tracks soon after — young Zora’s tales of a mythical evil creature take on an ominous and far more complicated complexion, jeopardizing the peace and security of an entire town and forcing three children to come to terms with the dual-edged power of pretending. Zora’s best friend, Carrie, narrates this coming-of-age story set in the Eden-like town of Eatonville, Florida, where justice isn’t merely an exercise in retribution, but a testimony to the power of community, love, and pride. A fictionalization of the early years of a literary giant, this astonishing novel is the first project ever to be endorsed by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust that was not authored by Hurston herself.” -Book Description
Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground by T.R. Simon (2018)
“When Zora Neale Hurston and her best friend, Carrie Brown, discover that the town mute can speak after all, they think they’ve uncovered a big secret. But Mr. Polk’s silence is just one piece of a larger puzzle that stretches back half a century to the tragic story of an enslaved girl named Lucia. As Zora’s curiosity leads a reluctant Carrie deeper into the mystery, the story unfolds through alternating narratives. Lucia’s struggle for freedom resonates through the years, threatening the future of America’s first incorporated black township — the hometown of author Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960). In a riveting coming-of-age tale, award-winning author T. R. Simon champions the strength of a people to stand up for justice.” -Book Description
Zora and Me: The Summoner by Victoria Bond (2020)
“For Carrie and her best friend, Zora, Eatonville — America’s first incorporated Black township — has been an idyllic place to live out their childhoods. But when a lynch mob crosses the town’s border to pursue a fugitive and a grave robbery resuscitates the ugly sins of the past, the safe ground beneath them seems to shift. Not only has Zora’s own father — the showboating preacher John Hurston — decided to run against the town’s trusted mayor, but there are other unsettling things afoot, including a heartbreaking family loss, a friend’s sudden illness, and the suggestion of voodoo and zombie-ism in the air, which a curious and grieving Zora becomes all too willing to entertain.
In this fictionalized tale, award-winning author Victoria Bond explores the end of childhood and the bittersweet goodbye to Eatonville by preeminent author Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960). In so doing, she brings to a satisfying conclusion the story begun in the award-winning Zora and Me and its sequel, Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground, sparking inquisitive readers to explore Hurston’s own seminal work.” -Book Description
Articles about Zora Neale Hurston
“In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” by Alice Walker Ms. Magazine (1975) https://www.allisonbolah.com/site_resources/reading_list/Walker_In_Search_of_Zora.pdf (This classic article brought about a revival of Zora’s works.)
“The Root: Zora Neale Hurston Was a Conservative” by John McWhorter NPR (2011)
“The Sum of Life: Zora Neale Hurston” by Michael Adno The Bitter Southerner (2019)
“Keeping the Memory of Zora Neale Hurston Alive in a Small Florida City” by Tunika Onnekikami, (2021)
“Zora Neale Hurston Is for Everyone” by Ibram X. Kendi The Atlantic (2022)
“Sonic Zora in Florida” by Daphne A. Brooks, Southern Spaces (2022)
“‘Why We Still Love Zora’: Irma McClaurin on PBS Documentary ‘Claiming a Space’ and Zora Neale Hurston’s Legacy” by Janell Hobson, Ms. Magazine (2023)
“Thank you to that white man down in Florida: Lessons learned from reading a banned book” by Melissa Bunni Elian, Salon (2023)
“Commandment Keeper Church” by Fayth M. Parks, Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/commandment_keeper_church.pdf
“Zora Neale Hurston Personifies Black Girl Magic” by Dr. David Johns, The Griot (2023)
“Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman Ahead of Her Time” by Rae Chesny, Strut in HER Shoes (2023)
“How Zora Neale Hurston’s Study of Hoodoo Helped Me Grieve” by Tracey Rose Peyton, LitHub (2023)
“If You Read One Book This Juneteenth, Make it Zora Neale Hurston’s “Barracoon”” by Angela Johnson, The Root (2023)
Films and Videos by and about Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston Fieldwork Footage 1928
Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940, a film by Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston: Heart with Room for Every Joy (2005)
That’s Livin’!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story (2008): Watch for free on Tubi:
Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun (2008): https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/zora-neale-hurston-classroom-resources-hurston/5533/
“Alice Walker Shines Light on Zora Neale Hurston” from Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (2013)
The Lost Years of Zora Neale Hurston (2016), watch for free at the link above.
#VelshiBannedBookClub: “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston (2023)
Podcasts about Zora Neale Hurston
- A Woman Half in Shadow (2017): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08m9kvj
- Zora Neale Hurston, The Liturgists Podcast (Feb 2020): https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-liturgists-podcast/episodes/Zora-Neale-Hurston-e1064gm/a-a5et6da
- Foremothers | Day 9| Zora Neale Hurston, GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp (Jun 2020): https://open.spotify.com/episode/0IQSHReVCMz5cRwTaO0NaD?si=IECAp0KqQim335XYtfoOEA
- Crews| Day 1| Zora and the Niggerati, GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp (Apr 2022): https://open.spotify.com/episode/6yggLLmwF4doKyBDnsB2yl?si=_nomeHPcSdWh9LUSluYo2Q
- Adjoa Andoh on Zora Neale Hurston, BBC’s Great Lives podcast Radio 4 (Jan 2023): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hfck
- Episode 26: Zora Neale Hurston, Nation of Writers podcast (Feb 2023): https://americanwritersmuseum.org/podcast/episode-26-zora-neale-hurston/
Websites and Blogs on Zora Neale Hurston
- The Official Website of Zora Neale Hurston: https://www.zoranealehurston.com/
- “A Look at Laura’s Bookshelf” by Laura Gibbs: https://lkgbooks.blogspot.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Hurston
- “Zora Neale Hurston: A Resource Guide”, The Library of Congress: https://guides.loc.gov/zora-neale-hurston
Resource contributors include: Laura Gibbs, Rae Chesny, Randi Dawson-Dedert, and duskyliterati.
Have any additional resources that I should add? If so, contact me at my Linktree page or respond in the comments of this post.
