Zora Neale Hurston Reading Order

16 books (1959–2025)

This anthology series collecting works by and about Zora Neale Hurston spans from 1959 to 2021 across 15 volumes. The series should be read in publication order, beginning with The Saturday Review Gallery. These anthologies feature short stories, essays, poetry, plays, and letters curated from various periodicals and literary collections, offering diverse perspectives on themes ranging from women's lives and regional American stories to graphic narratives and social correspondence. The series appears to be complete.

Start with The Saturday Review Gallery, the first of 15 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	The Saturday Review Gallery 1959Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	The Best Short Stories by Black Writers 1967Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Louisiana Stories 1990Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Florida Stories 1993Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Writing Women's Lives 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Downhome 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	The Prize Plays and Other One-Acts Published in Periodicals 1996Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Writing New York 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	The Messenger Reader Stories, Poetry, and Essays from The Messenger Magazine 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	Mothers Through the Eyes of Women Writers 2001Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Rotten English 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	Graphic Classics, Volume 22: African-American Classics 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	Letters to Change the World: From Pankhurst to Orwell 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	American Midnight 2019Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library 2021Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Harlem on Her Mind: Prose, Poems & Plays by Women of the Harlem Renaissance 2025Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

2 books (2026–2027)

Zora Neale Hurston's Children's series, co-written with Ibram X. Kendi, consists of two nonfiction books published between 2026 and 2027, with the series still ongoing. The first book, The Power of Our, was released in 2026, followed by Eatonville: A Story of America's First Black Town in 2027. Readers should begin with The Power of Our and continue in publication order to experience the series as intended.

Start with The Power of Our(With: Ibram X. Kendi) and read in order.

4 books (1957–2025)

The Langston Hughes Plays series collects dramatic works spanning from 1957 to 2025. This ongoing series comprises four books that should be read in publication order, beginning with Simply Heavenly. The collection includes Five Plays, Black Nativity, and The Mule-bone, with the latter featuring collaboration between Hughes and another writer.

Start with Simply Heavenly(By: Langston Hughes), the first of 4 books in the Langston Hughes Plays series.

5 books (1950–2008)

This two-book series from the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas collection was published in 1950 and is now complete. The series should be read in publication order, beginning with Chinatown Family and continuing with Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays.

Start with Chinatown Family (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas(By: Lin Yutang,C. Lok Chua) and read in order.

#	Title
1	Chinatown Family (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the Americas(By: Lin Yutang,C. Lok Chua) 1950Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Chinatown Family(By: Lin Yutang,C. Lok Chua) 1950Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	A Long Way From Home(By: Claude McKay) 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Daughter of the Revolution(By: Ira Dworkin) 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

12 books (1928–2023)

Zora Neale Hurston's non-fiction works span nearly a century of publication, from 1928 to 2023, collecting her essays, memoirs, letters, and folklore documentation across twelve volumes. This series should be read in publication order, beginning with How It Feels to Be Colored Me and progressing through her collected essays, autobiographical accounts, and historical narratives. The collection includes both works published during Hurston's lifetime and posthumous compilations that preserve her scholarly and personal writings. The series is likely complete, offering a comprehensive overview of this influential anthropologist and author's intellectual legacy.

Start with How It Feels to Be Colored Me, the first of 12 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	How It Feels to Be Colored Me 1928Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Tell My Horse 1938Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Dust Tracks on a Road 1942Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Bottle Up and Go 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Complete Essays 1997Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Collected Essays 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters(With: Carla Kaplan) 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Cudjo's Own Story of the Last African Slaver 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	The Last Slave Ship 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

3 books (2006–2023)

The Picture series by Zora Neale Hurston consists of three non-fiction books published between 2006 and 2023. These collaborative works, created with various co-authors including Joyce Carol Thomas and Ibram X. Kendi, should be read in publication order beginning with The Three Witches. The series appears to be complete as of its latest release.

Start with The Three Witches(With: Joyce Carol Thomas) and read in order.

#	Title
1	The Three Witches(With: Joyce Carol Thomas) 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Magnolia Flower(With: Ibram X. Kendi) 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Making of Butterflies 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

5 books (2009–2022)

This collection spans five dramatic works by Zora Neale Hurston, published between 2009 and 2022, and should be read in publication order. The series appears to be complete and includes Three Plays: Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Woofing as the opening entry, followed by De Turkey an de Law, Spunk: A Play, Color Struck, and Three Plays: Meet the Mamma, Color Struck and Spunk. These plays showcase Hurston's contributions to American theater and her exploration of African American life and culture through dramatic form.

Start with Three Plays: Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Woofing, the first of 5 books in the Plays series.

#	Title
1	Three Plays: Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Woofing 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	De Turkey an de Law 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Spunk: A Play 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Color Struck 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Three Plays: Meet the Mamma, Color Struck and Spunk 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

5 books (1924–2023)

This collection spans nearly a century of Zora Neale Hurston's short fiction and novellas, beginning with Drenched in Light in 1924 and concluding with The Mule-Bone in 2023. The four works should be read in publication order to trace the evolution of Hurston's distinctive narrative voice and literary style. While each piece stands alone as an independent story, reading them chronologically offers insight into the author's development as a writer across different periods of her career.

Start with Drenched in Light, the first of 4 books in the Short Stories/Novellas series.

#	Title
1	Drenched in Light 1924Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Muttsy 1926
3	The Gilded Six-Bits 1986Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Sweat 1997Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	The Mule-Bone 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

19 books (1935–2022)

This collection of 19 short story and literary compilations spans from 1935 to 2022 and showcases the diverse works of Zora Neale Hurston across fiction, folklore, and drama. The series includes seminal works like Mules and Men, complete story collections, plays, and collaborative picture books with Joyce Carol Thomas. Reading in publication order provides the best chronological perspective on how Hurston's literary legacy has been presented and repackaged for successive generations of readers. The series appears to be complete, drawing together previously published material, new compilations, and illustrated editions of her enduring work.

Start with Mules and Men, the first of 19 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	Mules and Men 1935Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Hurston Reader 1979Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... And Then Again 1979Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	The Sanctified Church 1981Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Spunk! 1985Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Novels and Stories 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	The Complete Stories 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Zora Neale Hurston: Stories 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	Zora Neale Hurston: Plays 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	Go Gator and Muddy the Water 1999Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Every Tongue Got to Confess 2001Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	In Search of Our Sister's Garden 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	The Skull Talks Back(With: Joyce Carol Thomas) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	What's the Hurry, Fox? 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Lies and Other Tall Tales(With: Joyce Carol Thomas) 2005Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Bookmarks in the Pages of Life 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	I Love Myself When I Am Laughing... And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	Collected Early Works 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

6 books (1934–2025)

Zora Neale Hurston's six standalone novels span from 1934 to 2025 and should be read in publication order, beginning with Jonah's Gourd Vine. The series remains ongoing, with works classified within the non-fiction genre. Each novel stands independently but together forms a significant body of work from this acclaimed author.

Start with Jonah's Gourd Vine, the first of 6 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	Jonah's Gourd Vine 1934Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Their Eyes Were Watching God 1937Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Moses, Man of the Mountain 1939Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Seraph on the Suwanee 1948Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Barracoon 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Life of Herod the Great 2025Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible