African American Poetry: A Digital AnthologyMain MenuFull Text Collection: Books Published by African American Poets, 1870-1928Long list of 100+ full texts books of poetry available on this "Anthology"Author Pages: Bios and Full Text CollectionsList of African American poets onAfrican American Periodical Poetry (1900-1928)A collection of African Amerian Periodical Poetry, mostly focused on 1900-1928Areas of Interest: Topics and ThemesAfrican American Poetry: Anthologies of the 1920sPoetry by African American Women (1890-1930): A Reader and GuideOpen access textbook introducing readers to Poetry by Black WomenExploring Datasets related to African American poetryAbout This Site: Mission Statement, Contributors, and Recent UpdatesAn account of the history and evolution of this site by the site editor.Further Reading / Works CitedAmardeep Singhc185e79df2fca428277052b90841c4aba30044e1
12024-02-07T14:00:14-05:00Zora Neale Hurston (Author Page)13Zora Neale Hurston: Brief Bio and Links to Poems and Storiesplain2024-10-13T08:57:01-04:00Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance. She followed a somewhat unusual path to her literary career, working in a number of service jobs before completing a high school degree via the high school academy at Morgan State University in Maryland. Between 1918 and 1924 she was affiliated with Howard University. In 1921, the published her first short story, "John Redding Goes to Sea" in The Stylus. In 1924, Hurston received a scholarship to study at Barnard College, and relocated to New York City.
Other than publishing a small number of poems in Negro World, Hurston largely published works of fiction as well as drama and non-fiction. Her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, appeared in the 1930s, but she was already quite active throughout the 1920s, mainly writing short stories and one-act plays (and even a small amount of poetry -- all of it published in 1922). Hurston's first short story, "John Redding Goes to Sea," was published in 1921 in The Stylus, Alain Locke's literary magazine (associated with Howard University). Hurston published several poems in the UNIA's newspaper, Negro World, in 1922; we have located several of those and have included them in our collection below.
Hurston's short story, "Spunk," appeared in the groundbreaking anthology edited by Alain Locke, The New Negro: an Interpretation (1925).
In 1926, she was part of a distinguished group of younger writers who contributed to Fire!!; her one-act play, "Color Struck," won second prize in the Opportunity Magazine contest for 1926. Fire!! also included her short story, "Sweat."
Here are some of the materials published by Hurston in the 1920s; our goal here is to digitize as much of it as we can find.
"John Redding Goes to Sea" (The Stylus, 1921), short story "Journey's End" (Negro World, 1922), poetry "Night" (Negro World, 1922), poetry "Passion" (Negro World, 1922), poetry "Reveries" (Negro World, 1922), poetry "Drenched in Light" (Opportunity, 1924), short story "Spunk" (The New Negro: an Interpretation, 1925), short story "Color Struck" (Fire!!, 1926), play "Sweat" (Fire!!, 1926), short story "Muttsy" (Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life) 1926, short story. "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928), essay
(A full Bibliography of Hurston's writings in this period can be found at the University of Central Florida's Zora Neale Hurston Digital Archive here.)