Sources:

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elynnharris/about.html

http://www.glbtq.com/literature/harris_el.html

E. Lynn Harris

 

 (Born 1955)

E. Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan and raised, along with three sisters, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he was 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.

Harris sold computers for IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T for 13 years while living in Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. He finally quit his sales job to write his first novel, Invisible Life, and, failing to find a publisher, he published it himself in 1991 and sold it mostly at black-owned bookstores, beauty salons, and book clubs before he was "discovered" by Anchor Books.

Anchor published Invisible Life as a trade paperback in 1994, and thus his career as an author was "officially" launched.

Gay men and beauty shops form a persistent stereotype: aren't all male hairdressers gay? In a twist on that cliché, E. Lynn Harris's remarkable literary career was launched within the nurturing, gossiping community of the black beauty shop where black women go to transform themselves.

He brought his first book, Invisible Life, about a about a man torn between loving a woman and another man to black book stores, book clubs, and, interestingly, to beauty shops, where his clientele was largely straight, black women and gay men. The strategy was successful; Anchor Books soon acquired Invisible Life, which quickly became a best-seller. Five novels have followed, and Hollywood has optioned two of Harris's gossipy, sex-laden books for possible motion pictures.

Harris' writing style is extremely easy to read and accessible. He produces the kind of page-turning books that can be read in a single sitting, and that appeal to a broad and diverse audience. Perhaps most significant, his work exposes bi- and homosexuality within the black middle class—in the fraternities, among professionals, amidst a segment of the population with whom the subject of homosexuality is rarely broached.

Harris' novels are romantic and upbeat. At the same time, however, he does not shy away from the explicitness and sometimes even the ugliness of homosexual relationships, as evidenced in his casual, almost brutal depictions of anonymous "trade" picked up in seedy adult bookstores.

The recurring character of closeted football player John "Basil" Henderson chronicles one man's inability or unwillingness to form solid relationships with other black gay men, while using them for sex.

Although Harris documents the paranoia and fear that cause gay men to hurt themselves and one another, he also presents exceptionally grounded, proud, gay male lead characters, such as the drop-dead-gorgeous, too-good-to-be-true Zurich Thurgood Robinson in And This Too Shall Pass (1996). These characters make their choices with little hesitation and no apologies.

Within the African-American community, resistance to gays and lesbians has remained strong. It is significant, however, that Harris has been enthusiastically embraced by this community--in large measure due to the accessibility and honesty of his portrayals. Harris is surely the only out gay man who can be featured in a contest such as "Win a Dinner with E. Lynn Harris" in a national black women's magazine, as he was in Essence in July 2000. His sexuality is not an issue; his appeal is his success, which he achieved both because and in spite of the fact that he is a gay, black man.

Harris has received numerous awards and honors for his work. Abide With Me (1999) was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and he received the 1999 Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, the University of Arkansas.

Although Harris is not immune to prejudice and homophobia his is a postmodern, gay success story. Appropriately, Harris has said that he considers himself not a gay writer, nor a black writer, nor yet a black, gay writer, but simply a writer. The diversity and breadth of his large audience suggest that this is how his readers see him as well.

Carla Williams