Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was an American novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist whose work helped define the Harlem Renaissance. Raised in Eatonville, Florida—one of the first all-Black incorporated towns in the United States—she drew on Southern Black life and speech with uncommon literary vitality. Hurston studied at Barnard College and conducted extensive fieldwork in the American South and the Caribbean, collecting folktales, songs, and religious practices. Her best-known novel, *Their Eyes Were Watching God* (1937), centers on Janie Crawford’s search for voice and selfhood. Hurston also wrote short stories, essays, and the autobiography *Dust Tracks on a Road* (1942).