Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) was born in Notasulga, Alabama. Many hear her name and think of her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), but she was also a sociologist and a folklorist. In 1926, a group of young black writers including Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Wallace Thurman, calling themselves the Niggerati, produced a literary magazine called Fire!! that featured many of the young artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. It should be noted that the literary magazine Fire!! is the inspiration for the name for the literary magazine FIYAH. Hurston spent most of her written words portraying the struggles of African Americans living in a racist society.