Their Eyes Were Watching God

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston. It is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance and Hurston's best-known work. The novel explores protagonist Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny." Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in Haiti in the span of seven weeks. Hurston was self-described as "under internal pressure" when writing and wished she could "write it again". Though retrospectively she felt the work captured "all the tenderness of [her] passion". Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received by the African-American community. After the publication of Alice Walker's article "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" in Ms. magazine in 1975 and Robert Hemenway's publication of a biography of Hurston in 1980, Hurston was back in the literary realm. Since the late 20th century, Their Eyes Were Watching God has been regarded as influential to both African-American literature and women's literature. Time magazine included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.