E. Lynn Harris was an American author, born in Flint, Michigan in 1955, and best known for his novels featuring gay black men who are struggling with their sexuality. Raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Harris attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he became the school's first black yearbook editor, the first black male Razorbacks cheerleader, and the president of his fraternity. He graduated with honors with a degree in journalism.
Before becoming a full-time author, Harris sold computers for IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T for thirteen years while living in Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. In 1991, he published his first novel, Invisible Life, which he initially sold mostly at black-owned bookstores, beauty salons, and book clubs. It was not until 1994 that Anchor Books published Invisible Life as a trade paperback, officially launching Harris's career as an author. Over the next fifteen years, Harris published fourteen novels, ten of which became New York Times bestsellers. His books also appeared on the bestseller lists of several other prestigious publications.
Harris's writing is characterized by emotive dialogue, slang, and vernacular borrowed from pop culture. Many of his novels deal with themes of bisexuality and gay identity in society. In 2003, he published his first work of nonfiction, a memoir entitled What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, which was also a New York Times bestseller. Harris won numerous accolades and prizes for his work, including the Novel of the Year Prize by the Blackboard African-American Bestsellers, Inc., the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence, and the Lambda Literary Award in 2005. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the Evidence Dance Company, and founded the E. Lynn Harris Better Days Foundation, a nonprofit company that supports aspiring writers and artists.
E. Lynn Harris passed away in 2009, leaving behind a legacy as a groundbreaking and influential author who wrote about the experiences of gay black men in a way that resonated with a wide audience. His books continue to be widely read and celebrated, and there are more than four million copies of his works in print.