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56-614: The Mary Gilmore Award is currently an annual Australian literary award for poetry, awarded by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature . Since being established in 1956 as the ACTU Dame Mary Gilmore Award , it has been awarded in several other categories, but has been confined to poetry since 1985. It was named in honour of writer and journalist Mary Gilmore (1865–1962). The Mary Gilmore Award

112-577: A Baptist boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida , but she was dismissed after her parents stopped paying her tuition. In 1916, Hurston was employed as a maid by the lead singer of a touring Gilbert & Sullivan theatrical company. In 1917, she resumed her formal education by attending night school at Morgan Academy, now known as Morgan State University , a historically black college in Baltimore , Maryland . At this time, to qualify for

168-612: A Rollins College professor and long-time friend of Hurston. In 1979, Stetson Kennedy of Jacksonville, who knew Hurston through his work with the Federal Writers Project , added additional papers. (Zora Neale Hurston Papers, University of Florida Smathers Libraries, August 2008). When Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925, the Harlem Renaissance was at its zenith , and she soon became one of

224-533: A collection of several hundred folk tales from her field studies in the South. She wanted to have them be as close to the original as possible but struggled to balance the expectations of her academic adviser, Franz Boas, and her patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason. This manuscript was not published at the time. A copy was later found at the Smithsonian archives among the papers of anthropologist William Duncan Strong ,

280-486: A free high-school education, the 26-year-old Hurston began claiming 1901 as her year of birth. She graduated from the high school in 1918. In college, Hurston learned how to view life through an anthropological lens apart from Eatonville. One of her main goals was to show similarities between ethnicities. In 1918, Hurston began her studies at Howard University , a historically black college in Washington, DC. She

336-503: A freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. In the fall of 1952, she was contacted by Sam Nunn , editor of the Pittsburgh Courier , to go to Florida to cover the murder trial of Ruby McCollum . McCollum was charged with murdering the white Dr. C. Leroy Adams, who was also a state politician. McCollum said he had forced her to have sex and bear his child. Hurston recalled what she had seen of white male sexual dominance in

392-545: A graduate student in anthropology, working with Boas at Columbia University. Living in Harlem in the 1920s, Hurston befriended writers including Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen . Her apartment, according to some accounts, was a popular spot for social gatherings. Around this time, Hurston had a few literary successes, placing in short-story and playwriting contests in Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life , published by

448-572: A graduate student. She also worked with Ruth Benedict and fellow anthropology student Margaret Mead . Hurston received her B.A. in anthropology in 1928. Alain Locke recommended Hurston to Charlotte Osgood Mason , a philanthropist and literary patron who had supported Locke and other African-American authors, such as Langston Hughes ; however, she also tried to direct their work. Mason became interested in Hurston's work and supported her travel in

504-588: A maid on Miami Beach's Rivo Alto Island . During a period of financial and medical difficulties, Hurston was forced to enter St. Lucie County Welfare Home, where she had a stroke . She died of hypertensive heart disease on January 28, 1960, and was buried at the Garden of Heavenly Rest in Fort Pierce, Florida. Her remains were in an unmarked grave until 1973. Novelist Alice Walker and fellow Hurston scholar Charlotte D. Hunt found an unmarked grave in 1997 in

560-569: A new book, Moses, Man of the Mountain . She also separated from her second husband, Albert Price, at this time, although their divorce would not be finalized until 1943 (see Marriages section). During her time in the Durham area, Hurston primarily participated in a variety of thespian activities, marking her lasting interest in Black folkloric theater and drama. On October 7, 1939, Hurston addressed

616-727: A new fieldwork project in South Carolina. It is likely that her departure was partially due to her poor relationship with NCCU's president, James E. Shepard , to which she briefly alluded in her 1942 autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road . To Shepard, Hurston's attire and lifestyle choices were inappropriate for an unmarried woman, leading to many disagreements; her severance was rumored to be "the only thing that [they] could apparently agree upon." In 2015, UNC students called for Saunders Hall (named after former Ku Klux Klan leader William L. Saunders ) to be renamed "Hurston Hall" in recognition of Hurston's contributions to academic life in

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672-603: A podcast documenting Hurston's experiences in the Durham-Chapel Hill area (forthcoming). Hurston traveled extensively in the Caribbean and the American South and immersed herself in local cultural practices to conduct her anthropological research. Based on her work in the South, sponsored from 1928 to 1932 by Charlotte Osgood Mason , a wealthy philanthropist, Hurston wrote Mules and Men in 1935. She

728-472: A short story, "John Redding Goes to Sea", that qualified her to become a member of Alain Locke 's literary club, The Stylus. Before leaving Howard in 1924, Hurston helped publish the inaugural issue of the school newspaper. She also joined the Howard literary club, where she published her first two short stories. Despite this success, Hurston paid for school by working as a manicurist in the evenings In 1925

784-403: A yardman, who had been told to clean the house, was burning Hurston's papers and belongings. A law officer and friend, Patrick DuVal, passing by the house where she had lived, stopped and put out the fire, thus saving an invaluable collection of literary documents for posterity. For two years, he stored them on his covered porch until he and a group of Hurston's friends could find an archive to take

840-762: The Guggenheim Foundation . She drew from this research for Tell My Horse (1938), a genre-defying book that mixes anthropology, folklore, and personal narrative. In 1938 and 1939, Hurston worked for the Federal Writer's Project (FWP) , part of the Works Progress Administration . Hired for her experience as a writer and folklorist, she gathered information to add to Florida's historical and cultural collection. From May 1947 to February 1948, Hurston lived in Honduras , in

896-1019: The Miguel de Cervantes Prize ( Spanish ); the Camões Prize ( Portuguese ); the Booker Prize , The Writers' Prize , the Pulitzer Prize and the Hugo Award ( English ). Other international literary prizes include the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Franz Kafka Prize , and the Jerusalem Prize . The International Dublin Literary Award is given to writers, as well as to the translator(s) if

952-555: The National Urban League . In 1927, Hurston married Herbert Sheen, a jazz musician and a former teacher at Howard. He later went to medical school and became a physician. Their marriage ended in 1931. In 1935, Hurston was involved with Percy Punter, a graduate student at Columbia University. He inspired the character of Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God . In 1939, while Hurston

1008-795: The New Theatre in Newtown , Sydney, as an award for the best new play. The Mary Gilmore Award for a First Book of Poetry was established in 1985, named in honour of the Australian writer and journalist Dame Mary Gilmore . As of 2022 it is known simply as the Mary Gilmore Award. The award currently conducted by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature and given to a first book of poetry published in Australia in

1064-502: The Pan American World Airways Technical Library at Patrick Air Force Base in 1956. She was fired in 1957 for being "too well-educated" for her job. She moved to Fort Pierce, Florida . Taking jobs where she could find them, Hurston worked occasionally as a substitute teacher. At age 60, Hurston had to fight "to make ends meet" with the help of public assistance. At one point she worked as

1120-600: The Transatlantic slave trade . The next year she published the article "Cudjoe's Own Story of the Last African Slaver" (1928). According to her biographer Robert E. Hemenway , this piece largely plagiarized the work of Emma Langdon Roche , an Alabama writer who wrote about Lewis in a 1914 book. Hurston did add new information about daily life in Lewis' home village of Bantè . Hurston intended to publish

1176-631: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green . She was also mentored by Frederick H. Koch , another faculty member at UNC and the founder of the Carolina Playmakers . She initially met both writers at the inaugural 1934 National Folk Festival in St. Louis, Missouri . She was persuaded by them to move to North Carolina for the prospect of collaboration with UNC faculty and students, despite

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1232-713: The Bethune-Cookman College Award for Education and Human Relations in recognition of her achievements. The English Department at Bethune-Cookman College remains dedicated to preserving her cultural legacy. For the 1939–1940 academic year, Hurston joined the Drama Department of the North Carolina College for Negroes (now known as North Carolina Central University ) in Durham . At the beginning of her tenure, Hurston published

1288-554: The Carolina Dramatic Association, remarking that "our drama must be like us or it doesn't exist... I want to build the drama of North Carolina out of ourselves." She noted that her students were largely supportive of this endeavor because many of the plays performed and viewed by them previously were not relatable to their own experiences and instead prioritized a "highbrow" view of society. She taught various courses at NCCU, but she also studied informally at

1344-562: The Durham-Chapel Hill area. UNC Trustees controversially voted to name the building Carolina Hall instead, but it is still known informally by many students as Hurston Hall. Despite the brief nature of her residency in North Carolina, Hurston is still honored at a variety of events in the area, including readings of her work. In 2024, Bree L. Davis received funding from the Southern Documentary Fund to produce

1400-608: The Mountain (1939). Also published during this time was Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938), documenting her research on rituals in Jamaica and Haiti. Hurston's works concerned both the African-American experience and her struggles as an African-American woman. Her novels went relatively unrecognized by the literary world for decades. In 1975, fifteen years after Hurston's death, interest in her work

1456-478: The South for research from 1927 to 1932 with a stipend of $ 200 per month. In return, she wanted Hurston to give her all the material she collected about Negro music , folklore , literature, hoodoo , and other forms of culture. At the same time, Hurston needed to satisfy Boas as her academic adviser. Boas was a cultural relativist who wanted to overturn ideas about ranking cultures in a hierarchy of values. After graduating from Barnard, Hurston spent two years as

1512-571: The Suwannee Jail (1956), which became a bestseller. Hurston celebrated that "McCollum's testimony in her own defense marked the first time that a woman of African-American descent was allowed to testify as to the paternity of her child by a white man. Hurston firmly believed that Ruby McCollum's testimony sounded the death toll of 'paramour rights' in the Segregationist South." Among other positions, Hurston later worked at

1568-407: The appeal and second trial, Hurston contacted journalist William Bradford Huie , with whom she had worked at The American Mercury , to try to interest him in the case. He covered the appeal and second trial, and also developed material from a background investigation. Hurston shared her material with him from the first trial, but he acknowledged her only briefly in his book, Ruby McCollum: Woman in

1624-479: The best winner. Sometimes juries can not decide between two contentious books so they will compromise with a third inoffensive bland book. He says there are now so many awards and prizes it has diluted the prestige of being a prize-winning book. Flanagan clarifies he is not against literary awards, but believes they should not be taken too seriously as a form of support for literary culture. Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960)

1680-570: The black community and became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance . Her short satires, drawing from the African-American experience and racial division, were published in anthologies such as The New Negro and Fire!! After moving back to Florida, Hurston wrote and published her literary anthology on African-American folklore in North Florida, Mules and Men (1935), and her first three novels: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); and Moses, Man of

1736-758: The book chosen was written in a language other than English. Spoof awards include: The Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award , the Bookseller /Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year , and the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction and Lyttle Lytton Contests , given to deliberately bad grammar There are also literary awards targeted specifically to encourage the writing from African American origin and authors of African descent. Two of these awards are Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence , which

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1792-489: The fact that UNC was still segregated and did not begin formally admitting Black students until 1951. Because her formal participation was limited, Hurston became a "secret student," participating in coursework and theater groups without enrolling in UNC., The Daily Tar Heel , UNC'S student newspaper, even named Hurston as a student in one such course, which focused on radio production. Hurston left NCCU after one year to pursue

1848-486: The fictional treatment she developed for her novels such as Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934). In 1935, Hurston traveled to Georgia and Florida with Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle for research on African-American song traditions and their relationship to slave and African antecedent music. She was tasked with selecting the geographic areas and contacting the research subjects. In 1936 and 1937, Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti for research, with support from

1904-569: The financial sponsor or backer, who pays the prize remuneration and the cost of the ceremony and public relations, typically a corporate sponsor who may sometimes attach their name to the award (such as the Orange Prize ). There are awards for various writing formats including poetry and novels . Many awards are also dedicated to a certain genre of fiction or non-fiction writing (such as science fiction or politics ). There are also awards dedicated to works in individual languages, such as

1960-477: The gambling operation of Ruby's husband Sam McCollum. Her articles were published by the newspaper during the trial. Ruby McCollum was convicted by an all-male, all-white jury , and sentenced to death. Hurston had a special assignment to write a serialized account, The Life Story of Ruby McCollum , over three months in 1953 in the newspaper. Her part was ended abruptly when she and Nunn disagreed about her pay, and she left. Unable to pay independently to return for

2016-409: The general area where Hurston had been buried; they decided to mark it as hers. Walker commissioned a gray marker inscribed with "ZORA NEALE HURSTON / A GENIUS OF THE SOUTH / NOVELIST FOLKLORIST / ANTHROPOLOGIST / 1901–1960." The line "a genius of the south" is from Jean Toomer 's poem, "Georgia Dusk", which appears in his book Cane . Hurston was born in 1891, not 1901. After Hurston's death,

2072-457: The life of Cudjoe Lewis (Kossola), one of the last survivors of slaves brought illegally to the US in 1860, was also published posthumously. Born in 1891, Hurston was the fifth of eight children of John Hurston and Lucy Ann Hurston ( née Potts). All four of her grandparents had been born into slavery. Her father was a Baptist preacher and sharecropper , who later became a carpenter, and her mother

2128-483: The lumber camps in North Florida, and discussed it with Nunn. They both thought the case might be about such "paramour rights", and wanted to "expose it to a national audience". Upon reaching Live Oak, Hurston was surprised not only by the gag order the judge in the trial placed on the defense but by her inability to get residents in town to talk about the case; both blacks and whites were silent. She believed that might have been related to Dr. Adams' alleged involvement in

2184-688: The material. The nucleus of this collection was given to the University of Florida libraries in 1961 by Mrs. Marjorie Silver, a friend, and neighbor of Hurston. Within the collection is a manuscript and photograph of Seraph on the Suwanee and an unpublished biography of Herod the Great . Luckily, she donated some of her manuscripts to the James Weldon Johnson Collection of Yale University . Other materials were donated in 1970 and 1971 by Frances Grover, daughter of E. O. Grover,

2240-667: The north coastal town of Puerto Cortés . She had some hopes of locating either Mayan ruins or vestiges of an undiscovered civilization. While in Puerto Cortés, she wrote much of Seraph on the Suwanee , set in Florida. Hurston expressed interest in the polyethnic nature of the population in the region (many, such as the Miskito Zambu and Garifuna , were of mixed African and indigenous ancestry and had developed creole cultures). During her last decade, Hurston worked as

2296-539: The patronage of philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason , a white literary patron. During the 1930s, Hurston was a resident of Westfield, New Jersey , a suburb of New York, where her friend Hughes was among her neighbors. In 1934, Hurston established a school of dramatic arts "based on pure Negro expression" at Bethune-Cookman University (at the time, Bethune-Cookman College), a historically black college in Daytona Beach, Florida . In 1956, Hurston received

Mary Gilmore Award - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-404: The previous year. From 1998 to 2016, it was awarded every two years; prior to 1998 it was awarded annually. Past winners of the poetry prize include: Literary award Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony . Many awards are structured with one organization (usually a non-profit organization) as the presenter and public face of the award, and another organization as

2408-502: The writers at its center. Shortly before she entered Barnard, Hurston's short story "Spunk" was selected for The New Negro , a landmark anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays focusing on African and African-American art and literature. In 1926, a group of young black writers including Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Wallace Thurman , calling themselves the Niggerati , produced a literary magazine called Fire!! that featured many of

2464-541: The young artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1927, Hurston traveled to the Deep South to collect African-American folk tales. She also interviewed Cudjoe Kazzola Lewis , of Africatown, Alabama , who was the last known survivor of the enslaved Africans carried aboard Clotilda , an illegal slave ship that had entered the US in 1860, and thus the last known person to have been transported in

2520-573: Was a place where African Americans could live as they desired, independent of white society. Hurston grew up in Eatonville and described the experience in her 1928 essay, " How It Feels To Be Colored Me ". Eatonville now holds an annual "Zora! Festival" in her honor. Hurston's mother died in 1904. Her father married Mattie Moge in 1905. This was considered scandalous, as it was rumored that he had had sexual relations with Moge before his first wife's death. Hurston's father and stepmother sent her to

2576-626: Was a school teacher. She was born in Notasulga, Alabama , on January 7, 1891. This was her father's hometown and her paternal grandfather was the preacher of a Baptist church. When she was three, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida . In 1887, it was one of the first all- black towns incorporated in the United States. Hurston said that Eatonville was "home" to her, as she was so young when she moved there. Sometimes she claimed it as her birthplace. A few years later in 1897, her father

2632-419: Was an American writer, anthropologist , folklorist , and documentary filmmaker . She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou . The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God , published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, an autobiography, ethnographies, and many essays. Hurston

2688-467: Was born in Notasulga, Alabama , and moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. In her early career, Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic research as a scholar at Barnard College and Columbia University . She had an interest in African-American and Caribbean folklore, and how these contributed to the community's identity. She also wrote about contemporary issues in

2744-409: Was elected as mayor of the town. In 1902 he was called to serve as minister of its largest church, Macedonia Missionary Baptist. In 1901, some northern school teachers visited Eatonville and gave Hurston several books that opened her mind to literature. She later described this personal literary awakening as a kind of "birth". As an adult, Hurston often used Eatonville as a setting in her stories—it

2800-682: Was established in 1956 by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) as the ACTU Dame Mary Gilmore Award to encourage literature "significant to the life and aspirations of the Australian people". Over the years it has been awarded for a range of categories, including novels , poetry , a three-act (full-length) play, and a short story . In 1959 it was organised by the May Day Committees of Melbourne , Sydney and Newcastle in partnership with

2856-767: Was established in 2007 by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation , and Hurston/Wright Legacy Award , which is a given by the National Community of Black Writers. Australian author Richard Flanagan wrote a critique of literary awards, saying "National prizes are often a barometer of bourgeois bad taste." He says juries can be influenced by vendettas, paybacks and payoffs, "most judges are fair-minded people. But hate, conceit and jealousy are no less human attributes than wisdom, judgment and knowledge." Book prizes will sometimes compete with one another, and these goals do not always coincide with anointing

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2912-442: Was offered a scholarship by Barnard trustee Annie Nathan Meyer to Barnard College of Columbia University . She was the sole Black student in this women's college. Hurston assisted Meyer in crafting the play Black Souls ; which is considered one of the first " lynching dramas" written by a white woman. She conducted ethnographic research with anthropologist Franz Boas of Columbia University and later studied with him as

2968-552: Was one of the first members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, founded by and for black women. She was also the first in her family to attend college, meaning that she was a first-generation college student . While at Howard, Hurston co-founded The Hilltop , the university's student newspaper. She took courses in Spanish , English , Greek , and public speaking , and earned an associate degree in 1920. In 1921, she wrote

3024-412: Was researching lumber camps in north Florida and commented on the practice of white men in power taking black women as concubines , including having them bear children. This practice later was referred to as " paramour rights ", based on the men's power under racial segregation and related to practices during slavery times. The book also includes much folklore. Hurston drew from this material as well in

3080-517: Was revived after author Alice Walker published an article, "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" (later retitled "Looking for Zora"), in Ms. magazine. In 2001, Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue Got to Confess , a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published after being discovered in the Smithsonian archives. Her nonfiction book Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" (2018), about

3136-638: Was working for the WPA in Florida, she married Albert Price. The marriage ended after a few months, but they did not divorce until 1943. The following year, Hurston married James Howell Pitts of Cleveland. That marriage, too, lasted less than a year. Hurston twice lived in a cottage in Eau Gallie, Florida : in 1929 and again in 1951. When foundation grants ended during the Great Depression , Hurston and her friend Langston Hughes both relied on

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