Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston. If you have not read, "Their Eyes Were Watching God", then you are missing out on one of the most masterful literary works in the American cannon. Hurston wrote about the life of African-Americans and specifically the struggles of African-American women in the early 1900's. In my mind, she is the literary grandmother of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.
