Zora Neale Hurston
United StatesAbout
Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was an American novelist, folklorist, anthropologist, and filmmaker, best known for her contributions to African American literature and the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Alabama and raised in Eatonville, Florida—one of the first incorporated Black towns in the United States—she drew extensively on the community’s traditions, speech, and folklore throughout her writing. Hurston studied anthropology at Barnard College under Franz Boas and conducted fieldwork documenting African American and Caribbean cultural practices. Her research helped preserve oral traditions, songs, and stories that might otherwise have been lost. Her literary works include Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934), Mules and Men (1935), Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). Although her work received mixed responses during her lifetime, Their Eyes Were Watching God was rediscovered by feminist and Black literary scholars in the 1970s, largely through the efforts of writer Alice Walker. Today, Hurston is recognised as a major figure in American literature whose writing celebrates Black cultural life, women’s independence, and the power of storytelling.
