🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Zora Neale Hurston
About Zora Neale Hurston An American folklorist, as well as being a highly regarded author, the writer Zora Neale Hurston was well known for being a well established voice during her time. Creating a rich and varied backlog of work, she would come to create a number of books that were extremely well received through her career. Producing a full and extensive oeuvre, she has definitely left a legacy which will be heard for many years to come yet. Early and Personal Life Born on the 7th of January 1891, the author Zora Neale Hurston would come to have a long productive writing career for the duration of her life. The sixth of eight children, she was born to father who was a preacher and sharecropper, along with her mother who was a schoolteacher.
All Book Series by Zora Neale Hurston
I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... And Then Again
Book 2 of 19 · published 1979
The Skull Talks Back
Book 14 of 19 · published 2004 Co-authored · Joyce Carol Thomas
Lies and Other Tall Tales
Book 15 of 19 · published 2005 Co-authored · Joyce Carol Thomas
I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive
Book 17 of 19 · published 2020
Three Plays: Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Woofing
Series opener · book 1 of 5 · published 2009
Three Plays: Meet the Mamma, Color Struck and Spunk
Book 4 of 5 · published 2022
The Three Witches
Series opener · book 1 of 3 · published 2006 Co-authored · Joyce Carol Thomas
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters
Book 8 of 12 · published 2002 Co-authored · Carla Kaplan
Cudjo's Own Story of the Last African Slaver
Latest in the series · book 12 of 12 · published 2023
San Francisco Stories
Series opener · book 1 of 12 · published 1990 Anthology · John Miller
On Suicide: Great Writers on the Ultimate Question
Book 3 of 12 · published 1992 Anthology · William Shakespeare,Virginia Woolf,Ambrose Bierce,Leo Tolstoy,Graham Greene,Langston Hughes,Emily Dickinson,John Donne,Plato,Jorge Luis Borges,Gustave Flaubert,Robert Coles,Walker Percy,Albert Camus,Cynthia Ozick,William Styron,Dorothy Parker,Sylvia Plath,Primo Levi,Phillip Lopate,John Miller,Genevieve Anderson,Alfred Alvarez,Émile Durkheim,Howard I. Kushner
New Orleans Stories
Book 4 of 12 · published 1992 Anthology · John Miller,Genevieve Anderson
Chicago Stories
Book 5 of 12 · published 1993 Anthology · Stuart Dybek,John Miller
Southwest Stories
Book 6 of 12 · published 1993 Anthology · D.H. Lawrence,Alison Moore,Barry Gifford,Sandra Cisneros,Larry McMurtry,Sam Shepard,Leslie Marmon Silko,C.G. Jung,John Miller,Georgia O'Keefe
Florida Stories
Book 7 of 12 · published 1993 Co-authored · Dave Barry,Elmore Leonard,Ernest Hemingway,John D. MacDonald,Damon Runyon,Isaac Bashevis Singer,Nathaniel Hawthorne,Stephen Crane,Elizabeth Bishop,Tennessee Williams,Alison Lurie,Wallace Stevens,John Sayles,John James Audubon,Joy Williams,Joan Didion,John Miller,KirstenMiller,William Bartram
Lust: Lascivious Love Stories and Passionate Poems
Book 8 of 12 · published 1994 Anthology · John Miller,KirstenMiller
Alaska Stories
Book 9 of 12 · published 1995 Anthology · John Miller,KirstenMiller
Texas Stories
Book 10 of 12 · published 1995 Anthology · John Miller,KirstenMiller
San Francisco Thrillers
Book 11 of 12 · published 1995 Anthology · Tim Smith,John Miller
Cape Cod Stories
Latest in the series · book 12 of 12 · published 2002 Anthology · Tim Smith,John Miller
Chinatown Family
Series opener · book 1 of 4 · published 1950 Anthology · Lin Yutang,C. Lok Chua
Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays
Latest in the series · book 4 of 4 · published 2008
The Prize Plays and Other One-Acts Published in Periodicals
Book 7 of 16 · published 1996
The Messenger Reader Stories, Poetry, and Essays from The Messenger Magazine
Book 9 of 16 · published 2000
Graphic Classics, Volume 22: African-American Classics
Book 12 of 16 · published 2011
Letters to Change the World: From Pankhurst to Orwell
Book 13 of 16 · published 2018
On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library
Book 15 of 16 · published 2021
Harlem on Her Mind: Prose, Poems & Plays by Women of the Harlem Renaissance
Latest in the series · book 16 of 16 · published 2025
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Zora Neale Hurston?
About Zora Neale Hurston An American folklorist, as well as being a highly regarded author, the writer Zora Neale Hurston was well known for being a well established voice during her time. Creating a rich and varied backlog of work, she would come to create a number of books that were extremely well received through her career. Producing a full and extensive oeuvre, she has definitely left a legacy which will be heard for many years to come yet.
Which Zora Neale Hurston series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas (MELA) series, the earliest of Zora Neale Hurston's multi-book series: it opens with Chinatown Family (1950) and runs to 4 books across 1950–2008, ending with Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays (2008).
How many books has Zora Neale Hurston written?
Zora Neale Hurston has 81 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1924 and 2025. 4 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas (MELA) series with 4 books — and 77 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Zora Neale Hurston's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Zora Neale Hurston's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas (MELA) (1950–2008, 4 books).
How are Zora Neale Hurston's books organised into series?
This guide splits Zora Neale Hurston's 81 books into 1 named series and 77 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas (MELA) (4 books, 1950–2008).