Reading Groups

Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South

$140

Four Sessions

Out of stock

Once a month Tuesdays, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:30 pm EDT February 25 to May 26, 2020

The Center for Fiction

This reading group will take place online via Zoom.

Meeting Dates:
2/25, 3/31, 4/28, 5/26

This reading group is designed for those interested in and delving into other facets of Zora Neale Hurston’s work during and after the Harlem Renaissance. The range of titles that can be applied to Zora Neale Hurston include author, anthropologist, filmmaker, and more. Her impact on the Harlem Renaissance and the American literary canon is profound. To this day the re-circulation and revelation of unpublished stories continues to showcase her potent and distinct style of writing, her love and focus on Black rural Southern life, and the methods she utilized to present Black communities without focusing solely on Black misery. Marriage, masculinity, societal “norms,” regional history, and voice (both narrative and spoken) are just a snippet of the plethora of material found in her stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction.

Please read Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” ahead of the first meeting.

Books read over the course of this group include the following: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” Their Eyes Were Watching God, Dust Tracks on a Road, Seraph on the Suwanee.

Books are not included in the cost of the class. Participants receive a 15% discount at our bookstore.

Led By

Jennifer Baker

Jennifer Baker

Jennifer Baker is a publishing professional, creator/host of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, and contributing editor to Electric Literature. In 2017, she was awarded a NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship & a Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant (as well as their award for Artistic Excellence) for nonfiction literature. Her essay “What We Aren’t (or the Ongoing Divide)” published in Kweli Journal was listed as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2018. Jennifer is also the editor of the short story anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life with Atria Books an imprint of Simon & Schuster (2018). Her website is jennifernbaker.com.

About this series

Reading Groups

Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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