Zora Neal Hurston - Updates

Harper Perennial and the Zora Neale Hurston Trust sign a new exclusive deal

2010-03-04T01:19:39+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Harper Perennial will continue to publish the Harlem Renaissance writer for the next decade.

Publishers Weekly Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 3/3/2010 9:18:31 AM

HarperCollins and its Harper Perennial imprint have reached an agreement with the Zora Neale Hurston Trust that will allow the house to continue as the exclusive publisher of Zora Neale Hurston's adult backlist for the next decade. Hurston, the renowned Harlem Renaissance-era writer and folklorist, is author of such classics as Their Eyes Were Watching God and Mules and Men. Fifty years after her death, Hurston's books sell nearly 500,000 copies annually.

The new deal was negotiated between Harper Perennial editor Jeanette Perez, and Victoria Sanders of Victoria Sanders & Associates, the literary agent who has represented the Zora Neale Hurston Trust since 1996. Despite her prominence during the years of the Harlem Renaisance, the works of Hurston fell into obscurity in the later years of her life. Interest in her life and in her works was revived through the efforts of novelist Alice Walker, who wrote an important article about Hurston for Ms. Magazine in 1975, and a through network TV special organized by Oprah Winfrey in 2005.

"Zora Neale Hurston is one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. We are very pleased that we'll continue to publish her books into the next decade," Carrie Kania, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Harper Perennial said. "It's also very exciting to introduce her works to a new generation of readers with aggressive plans regarding ebooks and new print editions of her classic works."

Zora Neale Hurston on PBS!

2010-02-19T14:27:29+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Jump at the Sun, a documentary about Zora Neale Hurston will be re-broadcast on PBS' American Masters next Monday, February 22nd. Check your local listings here.

To learn more about the film, and to purchase copies, click here. Educators should click here.

Zora Neale Hurston to be inducted into the New York Writer’s Hall of Fame

2010-02-16T02:31:53+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Click here to read.

The 2nd Annual Zora Neale Hurston Award!

2010-02-02T02:33:01+00:00

Congratulations to Anthony Loum from Brooklyn Public Library. He has won the 2nd Annual Zora Neale Hurston Award! Click here to read why Anthony was chosen.

Happy Zora Neale Hurston Day, Florida!

2010-01-29T02:34:19+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Click here to read.

Reading about Haiti

2010-01-20T02:35:29+00:00

{news_image_caption}

A feature on Reading About Haiti ran in the Globe and Mail on Friday January 15th and featured Tell My Horse. Click here to read.

Happy Birthday Zora!

2010-01-08T02:36:50+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7th, 1891. Make good on that New Year’s Resolution to reread a classic and pay tribute to Zora’s literary legacy by picking up one of her books today! If you’ve already read Their Eyes Were Watching God pick up one of her other novels such as Jonah's Gourd Vine or start with her short stories in The Complete Stories. You can read chapter excerpts of all of Hurston’s books at HarperCollins.com.

Gearing up for the annual Zora Festivals!

2009-12-11T02:38:46+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Folks in Eatonville and Fort Pierce, FL are gearing up for their annual Zora Festivals!

The Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities will take place January 23-31, 2010. More information is available here: ZoraNealeHurstonFestival.com

The Sixth Celebrating Zora Festival kicks off with a Hurston birthday celebration on January 9th (Hurston’s actual birthday is the 7th) with events following throughout the winter months. More information is available here: http://www.stlucieco.gov/zorafest/

Check back for updates and scheduled events for both festivals soon.

Eatonville, Florida meets Eatonville, D.C.

2009-12-09T02:40:58+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Eatonville, Florida meets Eastonville D.C.

Zora Neale Hurston is often associated with her home town of Eatonville, Florida and the home of the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem, NY. However, she also spent a considerable amount of time in Washington, D.C. Hurston wrote some of her earliest stories and poems in Washington while a student at Howard University. She enrolled in 1919 at the age of 28. She also worked as a waitress at the Cosmos Club and as a manicurist at a black-owned barbershop near 14th and G streets NW.

Eatanville Restaurant helps to bring light to Zora Neale Hurston’s legacy in Washington D.C. The restaurant has day-glo murals inspired by Hurston’s work, large quotes of her words, and a painting of the town of Eatonville, FL. The Restaurant recently played host to a mini Zora festival, a prelude to the Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (http://www.zoranealehurstonfestival.com/) which takes place in Eatonville, Fl each year.

You can read a great article on the Eatonville Restaurant and their mini Zora Festival here:
Food and folklore for those hungering after Hurston

Zadie Smith writes about Zora Neale Hurston

2009-12-05T00:41:44+00:00

{news_image_caption}

Zadie Smith writes about Zora Neale Hurston in her new book, Changing My Mind, Occasional Essays. Changing My Mind, Occasional Essays.

She has this to say of Their Eyes Were Watching God:

“This is a beautiful novel about soulfulness. That it should be so is a tribute to Hurston's skill. She makes "culture" — that slow and particular and artificial accretion of habit and circumstance — seem as natural and organic and beautiful as the sunrise. She allows me to indulge in what Philip Roth once called "the romance of oneself," a literary value I dislike and yet, confronted with this beguiling book, cannot resist. She makes "black woman-ness" appear a real, tangible quality, an essence I can almost believe I share, however improbably, with millions of complex individuals across centuries and continents and languages and religions...

Almost — but not quite. That is to say, when I'm reading this book, I believe it, with my whole soul. It allows me to say things I wouldn't normally. Things like "She is my sister and I love her."