Langston Hughes, known as the "Poet Laureate" of the Renaissance, was best known for his poetry, which reflected his roots in African American culture. At age 19, Hughes published "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", which was incorporated into his first collection The Weary Blues
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Countee Cullen was the most popular black poet during the Renaissance and addressed issues such as social marginality, race, religious hypocrisy, and homosexuality throughout his works. His best collection was titled Color, and others included The Ballad of the Brown Girl: an Old Ballad Retold, and Copper Sun
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Claude McKay was an author who was second to Hughes in influence. McKay was an immigrant from Jamaica and moved back to his home country in 1922 where he was proclaimed the national poet of Jamaica. His awareness raising poems such as "The Lynching" provoked defiance and anger to segregation. His realistic novel, Home to Harlem, was awarded a medal of the Institute of Arts and Sciences.
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Jessie Fauset, editor of The Crisis, published much of the earliest and best work of Renaissance writers. Publishing novels which represented blacks as mainstream Americas, she incorporated race issues alongside cultural problems. She wrote This is Confusion and Plum Bun, which were influenced by realism. She published more novels than any other Harlem writer.
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Zora Neale Hurston was an author and anthropologist who's flamboyant personality and impressive early works made her a memorable figure. Her best work was titled Their Eyes Were Watching God. Her work has influenced writers such as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Gayle Jones, Alice Walker, and Toni Cade Bambara.
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