Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 in Alabama. Her family moved to Florida when she was a small child. The inspiration that Hurston gained stemmed from her early beginnings in Eatonville, Florida. Her mother died when she was thirteen and after her mother’s death, her father sent her to school in Jacksonville.

Zora Neale Hurston attended Howard University but due to limited resources, she had to drop out of school because she couldn’t afford to stay in school. She earned a scholarship to Barnard College and it was at Barnard that she earned her BA in 1927. While in college at Barnard, Zora gained instruction from various mentors including Franz Boas (Columbia University) and Ruth Benedict.

In 1925, before Zora began her educational pursuits, she became active in a new movement. The literary magazine Fire! would soon become the core of the movement that took Harlem and other areas by storm. It would soon be dubbed the Harlem Renaissance and would have a profound affect on the African-American community and many urban centers.

Drenched in Light was the short story that she wrote about her childhood. She wrote the story for Opportunity Magazine in 1925. Hurston’s work in fiction included Mules and Men and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Zora Neale Hurston captured awards and recognition including the Guggenheim Fellowship which was given to her so that she could travel to Haiti for research. In her later years, Hurston worked as a freelance writer for various print media outlets including newspapers and magazines.

Hurston, who loved books, also worked as a librarian. Additionally, she was a substitute teacher in Fort Pierce. She died in 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave. However, in 1973, African-American novelist Alice Walker and Charlotte Hunt, a literary scholar, found an unmarked grave in the area that they believed Hurston was buried. They marked the unmarked grave as Zora Neale Hurston’s final resting place.