Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance
From one of the greatest writers of our time (Toni Morrison)--the author of Barracoon and Their Eyes Were Watching God--a collection of remarkable stories, including eight lost Harlem Renaissance tales now available to a wide audience for the first time.
In 1925, Barnard student Zora Neale Hurston--the sole black student at the college--was living in New York, desperately striving for a toe-hold on the world. During this period, she began writing short works that captured the zeitgeist of African American life and transformed her into one of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Nearly a century later, this singular talent is recognized as one of the most influential and revered American artists of the modern period.
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is an outstanding collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, racism and sexism that proudly reflect African American folk culture. Brought together for the first time in one volume, they include eight of Hurston's lost Harlem stories, which were found in forgotten periodicals and archives. These stories challenge conceptions of Hurston as an author of rural fiction and include gems that flash with her biting, satiric humor, as well as more serious tales reflective of the cultural currents of Hurston's world. All are timeless classics that enrich our understanding and appreciation of this exceptional writer's voice and her contributions to America's literary traditions.
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. She wrote four novels (Jonah's Gourd Vine, 1934; Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937; Moses, Man of the Mountains, 1939; and Seraph on the Suwanee, 1948); two books of folklore (Mules and Men, 1935, and Every Tongue Got to Confess, 2001); a work of anthropological research, (Tell My Horse, 1938); an autobiography (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942); an international bestselling nonfiction work (Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo," 2018); and over fifty short stories, essays, and plays. She attended Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University and was a graduate of Barnard College in 1928. She was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and grew up in Eatonville, Florida.
"The splendid stories...combine the warmth and affection of an insider with the documentary rigor--and ironic amusement--of a neutral observer...[and] a showcase for a remarkably vital dialect."
-- "Wall Street Journal""Helps illuminate Hurston's path to iconic status. Its 21 stories are presented in the order in which she composed them. As a result, readers can note the progression from earnest 'apprentice' works and experiments with form to the polished brilliance of her best-known stories."
-- "New York Times""A revelation not just in its celebration of Hurston's lesser-known efforts as a writer of short stories but also in the subjects and settings that it takes on."
-- "Washington Post"
