Zora Neale Hurston’s lost writings will be published in 2020

Zora Neale Hurston is one the most quintessential writers in American History most widely known for her work during the Harlem Renaissance.

Her voice will continue to resonate as publishers release Hurston’s lost writings in a new anthology, Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick.

Zora Neale Hurston’s new anthology

The new short story anthology will include chronicles of love, migration, racism, gender, class, and more.

Book publisher Harper Collins, boasts the new collection will include eight “lost” Harlem stories, rescued from obscurity 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.” according to Harper Collins website.

Publishers will release Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick on Jan. 14, 2020.

Storied journalism career

Hurston was born in 1891 in Alabama to formerly enslaved parents and grew up in Florida. Her best‑known novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937 and rediscovered in the 1970s. Oprah Winfrey later adapted the book into a 2005 television film starring Halle Berry.

Much of Hurston’s work illustrates Black life in the South. She also worked as an anthropologist to examine Black folklore.

Hurston is a Howard University alumna where she completed her associate degree. She later graduated from Barnard College with a bachelor’s in anthropology.

She died in Fort Pierce, in 1960. In 1973, Alice Walker had a headstone placed at her gravesite with this epitaph:

• “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.”

Photo: Biography.com