
The Best of Zora Neale Hurston: Books, Essays, and Shorts Stories
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I first read Their Eyes Were Watching God in a high school English course and I’ve got to be honest: I did not like it one bit. For sure, Zora Neale Hurston’s book was lyrical and stunning, but as a 17-year-old, I was deeply disturbed by the realities facing her most famous character, Janie Crawford. Did love and self-discovery really have to come at such a cruel price? My teenage self thought it all a little too much and sadly, reading Hurston’s work so early had the exact opposite effect than what I imagine my English teachers had in mind; I never wanted to read Zora Neale Hurston books again.
And yet, somehow, Hurston’s words kept coming back to me over the years, snatches of the book made real in my life. In fact, at some point, I had to admit that the vehemence of my dislike was probably tied to the vividness with which her characters and moments were rendered in the first place. So, a few years ago, I decided to give Zora a try once more. I went back to Their Eyes Were Watching God and then on to Every Tongue Got to Confess and found them not only to be gorgeously written, but deeply resonant, especially as a Black woman living in America.
I recently stumbled upon The Complete Stories, a collection of Hurston’s short stories and essays, many of which were published in magazines and newspapers throughout her life.
For those of you who, like me, were a little scarred by your first encounter with Hurston, these short essays are a fantastic entry point and it’s evident from the very first story that you are reading the work of a master.
She manages in a few pages to create the same arc of joy, tragedy, triumph, and discovery that she elicits in her more well-known novels (some of which are also excerpted in this book). Here are my top picks for best Zora Neale Hurston short stories and essays.

Who Was Zora Neale Hurston?
Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 in Alabama and raised in Eatonville, Florida (the backdrop for so many of her stories and novels). She went on to became one of the foremost writers of the Harlem Renaissance. However, her work was not without controversy; many of her contemporaries hated the use of stylized Black vernacular in her stories and wanted her to cultivate a more elevated voice for her characters. Their arguments at the time spoke to racial uplift and assimilation. Hurston was bold and defiant, championing instead the idea that Black culture, Black language, and Black joy were enough on their own and didn’t need to be brushed off and made clean to be beautiful. That defiance, that brilliant self-love, is evident in every one of her pieces.Where To Start Reading Zora Neale Hurston
