Was she or wasn't she?

As far back as I can remember, I've read claims that Zora Neale Hurston was bisexual, if not a lesbian. But she was married to three different men, and that rumor is not even addressed in her Wikipedia profile--all of which makes me suspect this is a case of wishful thinking. Whatever the truth of that, reading You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays, a brand-new compilation of Hurston's nonfiction, sounds like an excellent way to kick off Black History Month. Here are reviews from the Washington Post and New York Times.

It turns out that another prominent black female writer, Lorraine Hansberry, was bisexual. As Charles J. Shields documents in Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Behind "A Raisin in the Sun," the sadly short-lived playwright had numerous love affairs with women. Here are reviews of Shields' biography from the Washington Post and New York Times.