Tombolo Books and The Woodson African American Musuem of Florida invite you to celebrate a never before published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great—not the villain the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision.

Scholar-Editor Dr. Deborah G. Plant and local author Sheree L. Greer celebrate the life and work of one of the most essential voices in the canon of Florida literature, Zora Neale Hurson!

The event will take place at The Woodson African American Museum of Florida located at 2240 9th Ave South, St. Petersburg FL 33712. Doors open at 6pm for a pre-event reception with light refreshments, and the event begins at 6:30pm. Tombolo Books will be on site with copies of The Life of Herod the Great for purchase.

In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.

Portraying Herod within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston’s unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling, and misunderstood leader fully into focus. Hurston shared her findings about Herod’s rise, his reign, and his waning days in letters to friends and associates. Text from three of these letters concludes the manuscript in an intimate way.

Decades later, Dr. Deborah G. Plant has dedicated much of her career to studying the life and work of Hurston. In her role as scholar-editor, Plant’s "Commentary: A Story Finally Told" assesses Hurston’s pioneering work and underscores Hurston’s perspective that the first century BCE has much to teach us and that the lens through which to view this dramatic and stirring era is the life and times of Herod the Great.