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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 16 January 2020
New book of Zora Neale Hurston stories is out this week

By HILLEL ITALIE rels while she still walked rier, stands out as the rare
AP National Writer among us. Yet Zora, be- fictional commentary by
NEW YORK (AP) — Sixty ing Zora, did not let mere Hurston on the movement
years after her death, the death end her life." and upper class Harlem
story of Zora Neale Hurston The 21 stories in "Hitting a society. Its main character,
is still not fully told. Straight Lick" were com- Lilya Barkman, is wealthy
The fiction writer-anthropol- piled by Genevieve West, enough to have commis-
ogist-folklorist died in a seg- who chairs the English de- sioned an oil painting of
regated Florida hospital in partment at Texas Woman's herself. The Harlem in "The
January 1960, so forgotten University. West combines Back Room" is a site for "fine
and impoverished that her better known pieces such gowns and tuxedos, mar-
work was out of print and as the tragic "John Redding cel waves and glitter."
her grave left unmarked. Goes to Sea," Hurston's first "And Lilya Barkman shown
Starting in the 1970s, when published fiction, with more and glittered with the rest,"
Alice Walker helped re- obscure work. Hurston is Hurston writes.
vive interest in Hurston, the identified with rural Florida, Other Harlem stories tell
writer's standing has grown the setting for "Their Eyes of unfaithful husbands,
through a steady reissue of Were Watching God." But wives abused but unbro-
such classics as the novel the current collection high- ken, couples held together
"Their Eyes Were Watch- lights a less explored side or torn apart by money,
ing God" and the posthu- — her stories in the North, families torn between old
mous releases of stories, drawing upon her years in and new ways. The migra-
letters and other writings. New York. tion from South to North
The Library of America, the Hurston was born in Nota- is a puzzle for some char-
country's unofficial shaper sulga, Alabama, in 1891 acters, like the wife in "The
of the canon, has issued a and moved with her fam- Country in the Woman"
volume of her work. ily to Florida at age 3. She who sees her husband suc-
New projects continue later worked as a maid, cumb to New York morals,
and interest in her remains waitress and other jobs or the young woman from
strong as ever. In 2018, before enrolling at How- Eatonville in "Muttsy" who
Amistad published "Barra- ard University in 1920. Five takes in the Harlem scene
coon," a long-lost nonfic- years later, Hurston moved and observes that the "la-
tion work about a survivor to Manhattan in 1925 and dies" back home "didn't put
of the Middle Passage that lived off and on there until powder and paint on the
became a bestseller and the late 1930s. She would face." Lilya Barkman her- This image released by Amistad shows the cover of "Hitting a
Straight Lick with a Corrked Stick," by Zora Neale Hurston.
sold more than 250,000 come to be identified with self "fled the boredom" of Associated Press
copies. the Harlem Renaissance, small-town South Carolina,
This week, Amistad has re- but she was ever an icono- only to have her heart bro- the last. West says that her ings essentially had to be
leased "Hitting a Straight clast who stood apart from ken in Harlem. essays have yet have to be organized from scratch.
Lick With a Crooked Stick," her peers and the so-called West says that Hurston compiled and other stories At the time of her death,
a highly anticipated col- "New Negro" movement of was alert to the "dangers" may still be discovered, her papers were scat-
lection of early stories that the time. of migration and that for if only because Hurston's tered around the country.
includes material rarely "The New Negro movement her "the bloom was off the work often ran in publica- Some materials were only
seen since published nearly was about putting the best rose" by the time she left in tions that have long ended preserved when a pass-
a century ago. foot forward and that was't the 1930s. and have yet to be fully in- erby saw they were being
"We can all agree that the Hurston's agenda," West "New York had sunk into the dexed. burned in the trash and re-
end of Hurston's life was dif- says. Great Depression," West Cheryl A. Wall, a professor moved them in time.
ficult," the novelist Tayari The story "The Back Room," says. "She had no illusions it of English at Rutgers Univer- "The pages of her last man-
Jones writes in the fore- which West found in the was the promoted land." sity who edited the Hurston uscript, 'Herod, the Great'
word. "We can all agree archives of the black news- The latest posthumous Hur- Library of America edition, are singed along the edg-
that she deserved her lau- paper The Pittsburgh Cou- ston book will not likely be says that the author's writ- es," Wall said.q
Stephen King criticized for comments on diversity

NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Academy Awards, widely no further comment from
King says he cares only criticized for only choosing him was expected.
about “quality,” not “di- male directors and for an Admirers of King, an out-
versity” when deciding on almost entirely white group spoken liberal, were dis-
awards. Some are asking of acting finalists. King heartened by his com-
why he thinks the two must wrote that he had been ments. Author Roxane Gay
be different. allowed to nominate peo- tweeted that “as a fan, this
“I would never consider ple for best picture, best is painful to read.”
diversity in matters of art. screenplay and best origi- “It implies that diversity and
Only quality,” King tweeted nal screenplay, and that quality cannot be synony-
this week. “It seems to me for him “the diversity issue mous,” Gay wrote. “They
that to do otherwise would — as it applies to individual are not separate things.
be wrong.” actors and directors, any- Quality is everywhere but
The best-selling author’s way — did not come up.” most industries only believe
comments came shortly This May 22, 2018 file photo shows Stephen King at the 2018 PEN A spokeswoman from Scrib- in quality from one demo-
after the announcement of Literary Gala in New York. Associated Press ner, King’s publisher, said graphic. And now, here
this year’s nominees for the Wednesday that for now you are.”q