Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was an American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist born in Notasulga, Alabama, and raised in Eatonville, Florida—one of the first all-Black towns in the United States. A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, she studied anthropology at Barnard College under Franz Boas and conducted extensive fieldwork documenting African American folklore and cultural traditions in the southern United States and the Caribbean.
Hurston’s literary work blends ethnographic insight with poetic storytelling. Her most acclaimed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), is celebrated for its lyrical use of African American Vernacular English and its focus on a Black woman’s search for selfhood.
Though her work was underappreciated during her lifetime, it was rediscovered in the 1970s and is now considered foundational in American and African American literature. Hurston’s voice remains vital for its celebration of Black cultural expression, language, and female empowerment.
