Deborah Plant

Deborah G. Plant is an African American and Africana Studies independent scholar, writer, and literary critic specializing in the life and works of Zora Neale Hurston.

She is the editor of the New York Times bestseller Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston and the author of Alice Walker: A Woman for Our Times, a philosophical biography. She is also the editor of The Inside Light: New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston, and the author of Zora Neale Hurston: A Biography of the Spirit and Every Tub Must Sit On Its Own Bottom: The Philosophy and Politics of Zora Neale Hurston. Her latest book, Of Greed and Glory: In Pursuit of Freedom for All, will be published by Amistad, an imprint of Harper Collins, in January 2024.  She holds MA and Ph. D. degrees in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Plant played an instrumental role in founding the University of South Florida’s Department of Africana Studies, where she chaired the department for five years.