"What's got audiences hooked? Harris's unique spin on the ever-fascinating topics of identity, class, intimacy, sexuality, and friendship." –Vibe

E. Lynn Harris
photo: Troy Johnson AALBC.com

Despite his literary focus on black, young, middle-class, urban professionals, E. Lynn Harris and his three younger sisters were raised by their single mother, who worked in an AT&T factory in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was 14 when he first met his father, who was killed the following year. Harris said he fretted about his looks and lied about his sexuality for years before he was inspired to write about his experiences. His honesty and openness invite an unusual closeness between him and his readers.

After graduating with honors from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1977, Harris went to work as a sales executive for IBM. Five years ago, he quit his job as a computer salesman and used $25,000 of his own money to print INVISIBLE LIFE, which in the wake of the ensuing frenzy was published as a Doubleday paperback in 1994 and quickly soared to number one on the Blackboard Bestseller List of African American titles. JUST AS I AM, his second novel, made Harris the first male writer to have a number-one hardcover on the Blackboard list. His third novel, AND THIS TOO SHALL PASS, debuted on Blackboard at number one and spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. In 1996, JUST AS I AM received the Novel of the Year prize from Blackboard African American Bestsellers, Inc.

An avid University of Arkansas Razorbacks fan and college lecturer, Harris lives in Chicago, where his literary success, which he compares to "walking through a dream," has allowed him to purchase a house for his mother. "That's the best part -- that I was able to do that for her."

Read the text of E. Lynn Harris' online chat from BarnesandNoble.com dated Tuesday, September 23, 1997

Just Too Good to Be True
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Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (July 15, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385492723

Harris serves up a treat that will capture and enchant audiences everywhere—a big, bold, and irresistible novel about football, family, and secrets.

Brady Bledsoe and his mother, Carmyn, have a strong relationship. A single mother, faithful churchgoer, and the owner of several successful Atlanta beauty salons, Carmyn has devoted herself to her son and his dream of becoming a professional football player. Brady has always followed her lead, including becoming a member of the church’s "Celibacy Circle." Now in his senior year at college, the smart, and very handsome, Brady is a lead contender for the Heisman Trophy and a spot in the NFL.

As sports agents hover around Brady, Barrett, a beautiful and charming cheerleader, sets her mind on tempting the celibate Brady and getting a piece of his multimillion-dollar future—but is that all she wants from him, and is she acting alone?

Carmyn is determined to protect her son. She’s also determined to protect the secret she’s kept from Brady his whole life. As things heat up on campus and Carmyn and Brady’s idyllic relationship starts to crumble, mother and son begin to wonder about the other—are you just too good to be true?

A sweeping novel about mothers and sons, football and beauty shops, secrets and lies, JUST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE has all the ingredients that have made E. Lynn Harris a bestselling author: family, friendship, faith, and love.

I Say a Little Prayer: A Novel
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ISBN: 0385512724
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Pub. Date: May 2, 2006
Publisher: Doubleday Publishing

Bestselling author E. Lynn Harris is back with another sexy, shocking, and immensely satisfying novel that explores some of today's toughest and most timely issues.

Chauncey Greer is the owner of Cute Boy Card Company, a thriving company in Atlanta. As a teenager, he was a member of a popular boy band, but left in disgrace when word got out that he and his band mate D were more than good friends. Chauncey is a free spirit, on the brink of forty with a body admired by both men and women. Not into being categorized, Chauncey's been known to hook up with men and women, but now in the age of the 'down low,' he's found that women ask too many questions, so he's just focusing on the fellas.

After one too many bad dates, Chauncey finds himself in church where the minister's message inspires him to follow his dream of a singing career once again. Although he's lost touch with D, as he starts writing songs his thoughts inevitably turn to his former lover. Chauncey's powerful performance at the church earns him a standing ovation and an invitation to participate in an upcoming revival. But Chauncey soon discovers that an ambitious fundamentalist preacher plans to use the revival to speak out against gays and gay marriage. Feeling angry and betrayed, Chauncey and other gay members of the church decide to take a stand against the church's homophobia by staging a 'Day of Absence' when all of the gay members and their friends and family stay home. Everything is going as planned ...until D appears on the scene and Chauncey has to confront his past and make some hard decisions about his future. I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER is filled with the delicious plot twists, humor, compassion, andup-to-the-minute controversy fans expect from their beloved 'E. Lynn.' Harris has returned with another gem of a novel that will rocket to the top of bestseller lists nationwide.

Freedom in this Village: Black Gay Men's Writing 1969 to the Present
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ISBN: 0786713879
Format: Paperback, 352pp
Pub. Date: September 2004
Publisher: Avalon Publishing Group

Freedom in this Village is the first book to chart the course of black gay male literature over the past thirty-five years. Beginning at the birth of Gay Liberation with the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, editor and New York Times best-selling author E. Lynn Harris collects sixty entries, many never previously published. Fiction and poetry is matched in eloquence by nonfiction pieces, including essays and excerpts from memoirs, novels, biography, and autobiography. A new short story by E. Lynn Harris is featured, along with original work by twenty-five other authors. Among the roster of established writers are James Baldwin, Samuel R. Delany, Melvin Dixon, Peter J. Gomes, George C. Wolfe, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Hilton Als, Keith Boykin, Randall Kenan, Thomas Glave, James Earl Hardy, Brian Keith Jackson, Essex Hemphill (from whose poetry the title Freedom in this Village was borrowed), and the latest generation of writers who contribute fresh perspectives that choose to affirm rather than negate the interconnections between sex, race, and masculinity.

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted
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ISBN: 0385502648
Format: Hardcover, 288pp
Pub. Date: July 2003
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated

Now, in his most daring act yet, E. Lynn Harris writes the memoir of his life--from his childhood in Arkansas as a closeted gay boy through his struggling days as a self-published author to his rise as a New York Times bestselling author. In What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted, E. Lynn Harris shares with readers an extraordinary life touched by loneliness and depression, but more importantly, he reveals the triumphant life of a small-town dreamer who was able through writing to make his dreams--and more--come true.

A Love of My Own
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Format: Hardcover, 288pp.
ISBN: 0385492707
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: July 2002

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Zola Denise Norwood is a young hot editor in chief of Bling Bling, (the magazine “for people who want everything!) who’s at the top of her game, ruling the roost in business as well as the bedroom. Having discovered “the power of three” (not tying herself down to just one guy) Zola surrounds herself with a coterie of men : her best male friend, the gay Hayden; her Monday night man, Jabar, and enjoys stolen nights with married Bling Bling owner and media mogul Davis Vincent McClinton, a man who chases power at all costs…Still, Zola dreams of finding true love.

Raymond Tyler, Jr., a favorite and classic Harris character has suffered a personal loss and picks up and moves to New York to re-build his life. As CEO of Bling Bling, Raymond struggles to enjoy his newfound success in business as he searches for love and meaning in his personal life. John Basil Henderson returns with a new lady in his life, and Raymond and Basil renew a friendship that is fraught with sexual tension. As Raymond examines his life and strains to move forward, tragedy strikes, and Raymond faces his biggest challenge ever.

As Zola and Raymond search for a love of their own, several characters from the past make cameo appearances and round out another E. Lynn Harris classic tale. A LOVE OF MY OWN is filled with all the marvelous ingredients the author’s fans the globe over have come to love. Sit back and get ready as E. Lynn Harris takes you on another satisfying and rip-roaring ride.

Just As I Am: A Novel
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ISBN: 0385469691
Format: Hardcover, 384pp
Pub. Date: February 1994
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated

 E. Lynn Harris's blend of rich, romantic storytelling and controversial contemporary issues like race and bisexuality have found an enthusiastic and diverse audience across America. Readers celebrate the arrival in paperback of his second novel, Just As I Am, which picks up where Invisible Life left off, introducing Harris's appealing and authentic characters to a new set of joys, conflicts, and choices. Raymond, a young black lawyer from the South, struggles to come to terms with his sexuality and with the grim reality of AIDS. Nicole, an aspiring singer/actress, experiences frustration in both her career and in her attempts to find a genuine love relationship. Both characters share an eclectic group of friends who challenge them, and the reader, to look at themselves and the world around them through different eyes. By portraying Nicole's and Raymond's joys, as well as their pain, Harris never ceases to remind us that life, like love, is about self-acceptance. In this vivid portrait of contemporary black life, with all its pressures and the complications of bisexuality, AIDS, and racism, Harris confirms a faith in the power of love — love of all kinds — to thrill and to heal, which will warm the hearts of readers everywhere.

Any Way the Wind Blows
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Format: Hardcover, 272pp.
ISBN: 0385495056
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: July 2001

Now, in Any Way The Wind Blows, Basil, good-looking gadabout and homme fatale is back at the top of his game (razzle dazzling both the women and the men) and hanging out with his new friend, and rogue's rogue Bartholemew (aka "Black Bart") a handsome hunk of a man who stands to make Basil look like a choir boy. All is well until Basil's picture perfect life starts to unravel... Is someone out to get the unsinkable John Basil Henderson?

Not A day Goes By
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Format: Hardcover, 208pp.
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: July  2000
Edition Description: 1 ED

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About the Book From the Publisher
Welcome to the irresistible world of E. Lynn Harris--

He is a devilish and handsome ex-football player, now a rising sports agent at one of the hottest firms in the country. Irrepressible and dangerously alluring, John "Basil" Henderson has a history with women (and a few men). He's a commitment-phobe gadfly who's known for a double-edged magnetism that has the ability to thrill-- and wound.

She is the uncompromising Yancey Harrington Braxton, an up-and-coming Broadway star who oozes charm and bleeds ambition. Young, beautiful and dangerously crafty, Yancey is prepared to do whatever she must to get what she wants. A femme fatale who has left more than a few broken--hearted men in her wake, Yancey is intrigued by Basil. Both believe that in each other they've finally met their match.

A lavish wedding is planned, and the ultimate power couple plans to spend their lives in holy matrimony. But just before the nuptials, fate, and a little comeuppance from the past threaten the happy couple's future.

Masterful storyteller E. Lynn Harris takes listeners on a delicious little ride into the mischievous lives of two very unforgettable characters in this fun and satisfying cautionary tale.

Invisible Life: Fifth Anniversary Edition
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Publisher:  Random House, Incorporated
Date Published:  March 1999
Format:  Trade Cloth

Available at last, E. Lynn Harris's beloved first novel in a hardcover edition.

Just a few years ago, E. Lynn Harris was selling his self-published novel Invisible Life out of the back of his car. Today he is a bestselling publishing sensation, with more than one million copies of his four novels sold. To celebrate Harris's incredible success, and offer his fans the opportunity to own, at last, a hardcover version of Invisible Life, Doubleday is proud to announce a special edition of the book so many have cherished.

Invisible Life is the story of a young man's coming of age. Law school, girlfriends, and career choices were all part of Raymond Tyler's life, but there were other, more terrifying issues for him to confront. Being black was tough enough, but Raymond was becoming more and more conscious of sexual feelings that he knew weren't "right." He was completely committed to Sela, his longtime girlfriend, but his attraction to Kelvin, whom he had met during his last year in law school, had become more than just a friendship. No matter how much he tried to suppress them, his feelings were deeply sexual.

Fleeing to New York to escape both Sela and Kelvin, Raymond finds himself more confused than ever before. New relationships--both male and female--give him enormous pleasure but keep him from finding the inner peace and lasting love he so desperately desires. The horrible illness and death of a friend force Raymond, at last, to face the truth.
 

Abide with Me
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Publisher:  Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Date Published:  March 16, 1999
Format:  Trade Cloth

Read an AALBC.com Review by Paige Turner

Synopsis
The bestselling author of Invisible Life and Just As I Am returns with the popular protagonists from those two books, including Raymond Tyler, Jr., who experiences a setback in his successful legal career, and Nicole Springer, whose relocation to New York forces her to reevaluate her life and marriage. Through it all, Harris's masterful storytelling, wit, and sensitivity permeate this enormously satisfying novel.
 

And This Too Shall Pass
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Paperback, March 1997, 352pp

And This Too Shall Pass
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Hardcover, February 1996, 320pp

In And This Too Shall Pass, Harris takes us into the locker rooms and newsrooms of Chicago, where four lives are about to intersect in romance and scandal. At the heart of the novel is the celibate Zurich, a rookie quarterback for the Chicago Cougars whose trajectory for superstardom is interrupted by a sexual assault charge by Mia, a sportscaster with her own sights on fame. With his career in jeopardy, Zurich hires Tamela, a high-powered attorney, to defend him, while Sean, a gay sportswriter, covers the story and uncovers his heart. All of these characters face the challenge of keeping the faith - in themselves and in God - while Harris's heartfelt storytelling reveals how the love of family can help one to face the terrible legacy of long-held secrets. Throughout these characters' search for self-knowledge, Harris weaves the stories of MamaCee, Zurich's grandmother, whose lessons of faith teach one and all that "this too shall pass."
 

If This World Were Mine

Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: September 1997

E. Lynn Harris has already made publishing history. No black male novelist has ever before sold as many copies of his book as quickly as Harris has. With a nine-week stay on The New York Times bestseller list last year and appearances on bestseller lists across the nation, his third novel, AND THIS TOO SHALL PASS, put Harris on the top of everyone's must-read list.

Now, with more than a half-million copies of his three novels in print, comes IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE. This fourth work is a deft exploration of the ever-changing landscape of friendship among human beings, and in Harris's inimitable style, it reveals the story of a friendship that can -- and must -- survive the test of time and conflict in order to flourish.

Yolanda, Leland, Riley, and Dwight share a deep friendship forged in earlier years at Hampton University. In monthly reunions set in their hometown of Chicago, the friends enjoy evenings of gossip, companionship, and laughter and often discuss private entries in their personal diaries as well as what they have written in their collective journal, which they call "If This World Were Mine."

But after five years, the bonds of friendship are weakening, and the group must confront the challenges of work, lost love, and the affecting presence of a sexy stranger: gray-eyed John Basil Henderson, a character eerily haunted by his past. As the group members confront their true feelings toward each other, resentments and long-held secrets surface, and the stability of the group begins to falter. The disintegration of these complex friendships is halted by the specter of death, which forces the friends to recognize and accept the inner strength that they, as a group, have nurtured in each other.

In this as in all of his novels, Harris never ceases to remind us that life, like love, is about self-acceptance. In this vivid portrait of contemporary black life, with all its pressures and the complications of bisexuality, AIDS, and racism, Harris confirms a faith in the power of love -- love of all kinds -- to thrill and to heal, which will warm the hearts of readers everywhere.

Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing
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Marita Golden (Editor), E. Lynn Harris (Editor)

ISBN: 0767910419
Format: Paperback, 832pp
Pub. Date: October 2002
Publisher: Broadway Books
Edition Description: 1ST

A literary rent party to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation of African-American fiction, with selections to savor from bestselling authors as well as talented rising stars.

Not since Terry McMillan’s Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as:

• Edwidge Danticat
• Eric Jerome Dickey
• Kenji Jasper
• John Edgar Wideman
• Terry McMillan
• David Anthony Durham
• Bertice Berry
…and many, many more

Related Links

E. Lynn Harris has work in Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories
http://aalbc.com/books/gottobe.htm

E. Lynn Harris Homepage
http://www.elynnharris.com/

 

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