zora neale hurston their eyes were watching god book

I'm the Mellon Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, where I teach courses in African American literature, environmental studies, affect theory, and American poetry. It was a labor of love with a little bit of, of lying thrown in there, you know, to help make it possible. Joshua Bennett: So, that, that's how it happened. Zachary Davis: Walker purchases a headstone and has it engraved with: And in this gorgeous moment of narration, Walker stumbles upon this sunken place in the ground, right, and realizes that this is where Hurston is buried.

She says, 'Zora, not going to spend all day out here with this high grass and these snakes trying to find you, so tell me where you are.' Right. So there's this beautiful moment where Walker calls out to her. Joshua Bennett: And that is a fitting beginning point for this journey, because after that, it's unclear even where her unmarked grave is in the segregated cemetery where they go to find her, right.

Patterson believed Hurston died from malnutrition, when in fact she had a stroke. These word-of-mouth accounts reveal the myth and mystery that surrounds Hurston’s life.įor example, Walker spoke with Sarah Peek Patterson, the director of the Lee-Peek Mortuary that buried Hurston. Zachary Davis: In her nine-page essay, Walker describes her time in Florida, trying to locate Hurston’s unmarked grave. I mean, Walker lies about being Zora Neale Hurston's niece, flies to Eatonville, where she's been corresponding with the dissertation student who's writing on Zora Neale Hurston in an attempt to find Zora's unmarked grave and mark it. Joshua Bennett: And it's pretty incredible just on its own as a narrative. magazine, in an essay called “Looking for Zora.” In 1975, Walker flew to Florida to find Hurston’s grave. It seemed like her work, and her memory, would be lost forever.until the writer Alice Walker came along. When she died, she was buried in an unmarked grave. She butted heads with other figures in the Harlem Renaissance, a 20th century literary movement that produced some of the most influential Black artists and thinkers in American history. Her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is taught in classrooms around the United States and critics love it, too-the BBC said it was one of the 100 books that shaped our world.īut during her lifetime, her work was not as not widely celebrated.

Zachary Davis: Today, Zora Neale Hurston is recognized as one of America’s greatest authors.

Zora neale hurston their eyes were watching god book