Publishers did as much to spur the Harlem Renaissance as writers did. According to George Hutchinson, a professor of literary studies at Indiana University, houses like Alfred A. Knopf, Harcourt Brace and Boni & Liveright led the market in black-authored books. Crucial to the movement were African-American magazines such as "The Crisis," "Opportunity" and "The Messenger," which published many black authors for the first time. In 1924, Charles S. Johnson, editor of "Opportunity," held a banquet joining black authors and white publishers at New York's Civic Club. The following year, Alain Locke published "The New Negro: An Interpretation," announcing a new literary movement led by the authors recognized at the banquet. Locke's work sold well and garnered critical success, drawing attention to the movement and inspiring new black writers. The same year, "Crisis" and "Opportunity" began holding contests for black writers, which motivated and celebrated new talent.
In 1924, two novels made waves on the literary scene: Jessie Redmon Fauset's "There Is Confusion," which explored the new black middle class, and Walter White's "The Fire in the Flint," which told the story of a black physician who fought in World War I and then suffered a lynching. In 1927, James Weldon Johnson re-released his earlier novel, "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" to great success. The former three novels proved that black authors could place their work with prestigious publishing firms. Nella Larson became the first successful black female novelist with 1928's "Quicksand."
Another facet of the Harlem Renaissance explored politically radical ideals about black political identity and revolution, showing strong influences of Marxism and anti-imperialism. W.E.B. DuBois was one of the central figures of this branch of the movement, especially with his novel "Dark Princess," published in 1928. Claude McKay followed this trend with "Banjo" in 1929.
Many of the best-known works of the Harlem Renaissance focused on "folk fiction," which portrayed an authentic picture of the black Southern experience as no white author could. Hutchinson asserts that the most successful of these was Zora Neale Hurston, chiefly with the 1937 novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God," which many regard as one of the highest achievements of the Harlem Renaissance.
Claude McKay wrote in traditional poetic forms, namely the sonnet, in works like 1919's "If We Must Die," which described the feelings of black soldiers in World War I. In 1920's "The Creation" and 1927's "God's Trombones," James Weldon Johnson set traditional African-American sermons in poetic forms. Langston Hughes, one of the most celebrated authors of the Harlem Renaissance, led black writers to create a distinctive "Negro" style with works like 1926's "The Weary Blues" and 1927's "Fine Clothes to the Jew." Countee Cullen, the most critically successful Renaissance poet, published his famous "From The Dark Tower" in 1926.
Prior to the Harlem Renaissance, blacks were represented in theater by white actors in blackface, which created a powerful range of damaging stereotypes, according to Hutchinson. Beginning in the 1910s, white-authored plays about black life gained critical success, opening the door for black playwrights and actors to be taken seriously. Soon black playwrights began to achieve success also. In 1923, Willis Richardson's "The Chip Woman's Fortune" became the first black-authored nonmusical drama on Broadway. In 1929, Wallace Thurman and William Jourdan Rapp released the successful and somewhat controversial play "Harlem," which showcased the lower-class life in Harlem and drew much praise from white critics. Most successful of the black-authored plays during the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes's "Mulatto," first performed in 1935, set on a Georgia plantation.