Harris, E. Lynn 1957-

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Harris, E. Lynn 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born 1957, in Flint, MI; son of Etta (an assembly worker) Harris. Ethnicity: African American. Education: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, B.A. (with honors), 1977; studied business at Southern Methodist University. Religion: Christian. Hobbies and other interests: Arkansas Razorbacks fan.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Fayetteville, AK; Atlanta, GA; and Houston, TX. Agent—John Hawkins & Associates, 71 West 23rd St., Ste. 1600, New York, NY 10010. E-mail—heyelynn@aol.com.

CAREER:

Corporate sales for IBM, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard, 1977-90; author, 1990—. Visiting professor in English and writer-in-residence, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Has also appeared on Broadway in Dreamgirls, 2001, and Love Letters to America; guest host of episodes of In the Life, American Public Television, 2000, 2003

AWARDS, HONORS:

Novel of the Year prize, Blackboard African-American Bestsellers, Inc., 1996, for Just as I Am; NAACP Image Award nominee, 1997, and James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence, both for If This World Were Mine; SBC Magazine Brother of the Year in literature; Harlem Y. Mentor Award; BMAD (Gay Men of African Descent), Angel Award; Citation of Distinguished Alumni, University of Arkansas, 1999, for outstanding professional achievement; inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, 2000; Blackboard Book Award for fiction, 2002, for Any Way the Wind Blows; Blackboard Book Award for fiction, 2003, for A Love of My Own; Lambda Literary Bridgebuilder Award, 2004, for What Becomes of the Brokenhearted; Lambda Literary Award finalist, 2006, for Freedom in the Village; Sprague Todes Literary Award.

WRITINGS:

Invisible Life, Consortium Press (Atlanta, GA), 1991.

Just as I Am: A Novel, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1994.

And This Too Shall Pass, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1996.

If This World Were Mine, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1997.

Abide with Me, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1999.

Not a Day Goes By: A Novel, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2000.

Any Way the Wind Blows: A Novel, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.

A Love of My Own, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with Marita Golden) Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writers, Harlem Moon (New York, NY), 2002.

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir, foreword by Maya Angelou, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor) Freedom in the Village: Twenty-five Years of Black, Gay Men's Writing, Carroll & Graf (New York, NY), 2004.

I Say a Little Prayer (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of Sparkle, a screenplay. Contributor to books, including Go The Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African-American Writers Holt (New York, NY), 1996, and Got To Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, New American Library (New York, NY), 2000. Contributor to periodicals, including Advocate, American Visions, Sports Illustrated, Essence, Washington Post Sunday Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Savoy.

ADAPTATIONS:

Several of Harris's novels have been adapted as audiobooks, including What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, Books on Tape, 20003, and I Say a Little Prayer, Books on Tape, 2006; Not A Day Goes By was adapted as a stage musical, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

E. Lynn Harris is the author of a number of bestselling novels, including And This Too Shall Pass and Not a Day Goes By: A Novel. A computer salesman-turned-novelist, Harris used writing to help liberate him from a depression born of hiding his homosexuality. Harris was successful but unhappy in his work; he was lonely and became a heavy drinker. When he met noted author Maya Angelou at a business function in 1983, he confessed to the poet that he had a desire to write. She encouraged him to write every day, even if his output was only a single word. Eventually, Harris left his sales job and penned a semi-autobiographical novel, Invisible Life. Although the book was initially rejected by several publishers, it eventually reached a large audience and Harris became an increasingly well-known name in African American fiction.

It took a great deal of determination to put Invisible Life into readers' hands. Harris decided to self-publish the novel, using his own savings and funds raised from AIDS organizations. But as he told a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, the hard work was yet to come: "I had over five thousand copies in rented office space. At the first book party we sold only forty-two, and I felt sick." The author filled the trunk of his car with books and began distributing them to black-owned bookstores in Atlanta; he also left copies in black beauty shops, asking that they be kept in the shops for patrons to read. Word of mouth finally created a demand for the book and stores began to order copies in greater numbers. Subsequently, Essence named Invisible Life one of its ten best books, and a story in the Atlanta Constitution led to a trade paperback publishing contract with Anchor Books.

Harris's first novel treats gay themes but attracted a wide audience, especially among black, female heterosexual readers. Invisible Life is the story of a black man, Raymond Tyler, who has a long-term relationship with a girl during high school and college. But in the senior year of his college career, Tyler becomes attracted to a man and enters a double life, dating women from whom he hides the fact of his bisexuality—or perhaps homosexuality. The novel details his experiences in gay bars, the impact of AIDS on his life, his relationship with a married man, and his own interest in having a family.

Harris continued Tyler's story in Just as I Am: A Novel, in which Tyler's former girlfriend, Nicole, also serves as narrator. While Harris was credited for the book's depiction of gay life, several reviewers noted its lack of substance. A Publishers Weekly critic called it an "unappealing potboiler" and "more checklist than novel." David Ehrenstein, writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, commented that while the author deals with "potentially very serious material … Harris is barely up to the task of regurgitating the clichés of a previous generation of gay pulpsters." Commenting on Harris's readership, Ehrenstein noted, "the fascination many heterosexual women have for homosexual men has—finally—been revealed as a market ripe for the plucking."

Harris returned to publishing with the novel And This Too Shall Pass, a story about young black professionals, male and female, gay and straight. Each of Harris's protagonists face different crises, including alcoholism, sexual orientation, and physical abuse. The plot revolves around a young NFL quarterback for a fictional Chicago team who is falsely accused of sexual assault by Mia, a young, black sportscaster. Other characters in the novel include Tamela, an attorney for a large Chicago law firm, and a gay sportswriter named Sean who ultimately falls for the football player.

Commenting on the storyline in Just as I Am, Harris told Blacklines interviewer Rhonda Mundhenk: "If I had to describe it, it would be a story about how important family is to us as Black people…. I believe that the book shows that when we go through difficult times, we can depend on our faith and our families." He added: "Sean is looking for love. He doesn't have a problem with being Black or being gay, but he does have a problem with acknowledging that he deserves love in his life…. He needs life in all its fullness. So many times as gay African-Americans we limit our dreams and limit what we think we can have. A lot of that is self-imposed." Booklist reviewer Charles Harmon liked the novel's characters, dialogue, and plot, and concluded that the book had "something to impress nearly any reader." A reviewer in Publishers Weekly found the novel "entertaining" and noted that "despite some stilted dialogue, this novel should broaden the author's readership."

Continuing with a slightly older group of black characters, Harris created If This World Were Mine, which contributor Rhonda Johnson called "an engrossing, fast-paced buppie Big Chill" in an Entertainment Weekly review. The four central characters, who are friends approaching the age of forty, meet regularly to share their journals. The meetings ultimately serve as more than a writing exchange; they provide a support group for a variety of troubles. A Publishers Weekly reviewer considered it to be "another involving tale" but added, "it's likely that many readers will long for more structure and dramatic payoff." Ray Olson commented in Booklist that If This World Were Mine was "more in the vein of Terry McMillan than of Toni Morrison."

In 2000 Harris's book Not a Day Goes By: A Novel reached the number-two spot on the New York Times bestseller list. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly pointed out that this was nothing new for Harris. "Following a string of bestselling novels featuring plots that mix romance, deception, betrayal and bisexuality, Harris … scores again." Then in 2001, Harris published Any Way the Wind Blows, which, according to Publishers Weekly contributor Theola S. Labbe, "picks up where his previous one, Not a Day Goes By, left off, following the adventures of a macho sports agent who breaks the hearts of women and men…. As in previous works, the characters are generally African American, upwardly mobile, gay or bisexual and in search of love."

What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir which took the author seven years to write, appeared in 2003. In the work, Harris recounts the often painful events of his tumultuous life, including physical and verbal abuse at the hands of his stepfather, his series of failed relationships with men, and a 1990 suicide attempt. He also chronicles his path to healing, aided by his literary success. According to Lambda Book Report contributor Adrian King, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted "speaks directly to what Harris has repeatedly espoused in his previous eight novels—that love has many forms and we get from it what we put into it, that being true to ourselves helps us in our search for true love, that healthy friendships and family relationships are essential, that unchecked despair can become monstrous and debilitating, that HIV/AIDS is devastating the black community, that there is power in prayer." Booklist critic Whitney Scott called Harris's memoir an "engagingly told life story," and Curtis Stephen, writing in Black Issues Book Review, deemed it "a soul-searing, jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring nonfiction work."

In 2006 Harris published I Say a Little Prayer, a "moving and honest exploration of sex, sin and redemption," wrote a critic in Kirkus Reviews. The novel concerns Chauncey Greer, a successful businessman who has found a home at Abundant Joy, a church that accepts gays and lesbians. A former member of a boy band, Chauncey eagerly accepts an invitation to sing at a revival, until he learns that the minister who is slated to speak at the ceremony has campaigned against gay marriage. I Say a Little Prayer "offers insight into the struggle within the black church concerning gay rights," remarked Booklist contributor Vanessa Bush.

Some reviewers have criticized Harris's writing, stating that his plots sometimes read like predictable soap opera storylines. Many also see Harris's stories, as Labbe put it, "as a bit too pat" and they have not liked "his glossy treatment of such weighty topics as AIDS and bisexuality." Harris's response, in his interview with Labbe, was: "Sometimes I can see their point…. I do take note, I do listen to criticism and I think I handle criticism pretty well."

Asked to describe his literary legacy, Harris told Publishers Weekly interviewer Elizabeth Millard: "I think people really don't know what to do with me; they don't know where I fit. First, I was the Luther Vandross of literature, then I was the male Terry McMillan, and now Jackie Collins. I don't mind at all, because these people have had long careers, they've become brand names. In 20 years, if I'm the black Sidney Sheldon, that would be great. I hope for that."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 12, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Advocate, March 8, 1994, Eric K. Washington, review of Just as I Am: A Novel, p. 73; August 29, 2000, Austin Foxxe, review of Not a Day Goes By: A Novel, p. 67.

Atlanta Constitution, January, 2001, Anthony Johnson, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 23.

Black Issues Book Review, September, 2000, Kenneth E. Reeves, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 21; May, 2001, Nikitta A. Foston, review of Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, p. 19; July, 2001, Glenn Townes, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 30; September-October, 2003, Curtis Stephen, "Writing Out Loud," review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 52; July-August, 2006, Steven G. Fullwood, review of I Say a Little Prayer, p. 36.

Booklist, February 15, 1994, Whitney Scott, review of Just as I Am, p. 1060; February 15, 1996, Charles Harmon, review of And This Too Shall Pass, p. 990; June 1, 1997, Ray Olson, review of If This World Were Mine, p. 1619; June 1, 2000, Whitney Scott, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 1797; July, 2001, Vanessa Bush, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 1950; July, 2003, Whitney Scott, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 1843; April 1, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of I Say a Little Prayer, p. 6.

Bookpage, August, 2003, Jay MacDonald, "Where Fiction Ends: E. Lynn Harris Reveals The Painful Truth behind His Novels."

Dallas Morning News, April 3, 1996, p. 1C.

Detroit Free Press, July 26, 2002, Cassandra Spratling, review of A Love of My Own.

Ebony, October, 2000, "Q&A with Best-Selling Author E. Lynn Harris"; August, 2003, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 30.

Emerge, July-August, 1996, Paula L. Woods, "E. Lynn Harris Aspires to Cross Literary Lines," p. 77.

Entertainment Weekly, April 15, 1994, Michael E. Ross, review of Invisible Life, p. 55; August 22, 1997, Rhonda Johnson, review of If This World Were Mine, p. 129; July 18, 2003, Clarissa Cruz, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 80; May 12, 2006, Karen Valby, review of I Say a Little Prayer, p. 86.

Essence, July, 1992, review of Invisible Life, p. 42; April, 1996, Deborah Gregory, "Just As He Is," p. 88; August, 2001, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 64.

Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, January, 2001, Timothy Burton, review of The Young and the Reckless, p. 42.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2006, review of I Say a Little Prayer, p. 313.

Kliatt, January, 2005, KaaVonia Hinton, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 30.

Lambda Book Report, May, 1992, review of Invisible Life, p. 48; March-April, 1994, Canaan Parker, review of Just as I Am, p. 20; May, 1994, review of Invisible Life, p. 38; May, 1995, review of Just as I Am, p. 39; December, 2003, Adrian King, "Happy Ever After," review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 32.

Library Journal, February 1, 1994, Thomas L. Kilpatrick, review of Just as I Am, p. 111; February 1, 1996, Rebecca Sturm Kelm, review of And This Too Shall Pass, p. 98; June 15, 1996, Danna C. Bell-Russel, review of And This Too Shall Pass, p. 105; September 15, 1999, Catherine Swenson, review of Abide with Me, p. 128; March 1, 2000, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. S1; November 1, 2000, Ann Burns and Emily Joy Jones, review of Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, p. 101.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 10, 1994, David Ehrenstein, review of Just as I Am, pp. 4, 10.

Newsweek, April 29, 1996, Malcolm Jones, Jr., "Successful Sisters: Faux Terry Is Better Than No Terry," p. 79.

New York Times Book Review, August 10, 2003, Diane Scharper, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 20; June 11, 2006, Troy Patterson, "A Man in Full," review of I Say a Little Prayer, p. 25.

People, May 15, 1995, "Sweet Bi and Bi," p. 115.

Progressive, January, 2001, Kate Clinton, review of Abide with Me, p. 36.

Publishers Weekly, December 6, 1993, review of Invisible Life, pp. 29, 32; January 24, 1994, review of Just as I Am, p. 41; January 29, 1996, review of And This Too Shall Pass, p. 84; March 4, 1996, review of And This Too Shall Pass, p. 31; July 28, 1997, review of If This World Were Mine, p. 55; April 19, 1999, Alissa Quart, "E. Lynn Harris: Tales of the Good Life," p. 44; June 26, 2000, review of Not A Day Goes By, p. 50; December 4, 2000, review of Got to Be Real, p. 53; June 25, 2001, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 49; July 30, 2001, Theola S. Labbe, "E. Lynn Harris, Black, Male, Out, and On Top," p. 53; June 16, 2003, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 61, and Elizabeth Millard, "Writing to Find Some Kind of Peace of Mind," p. 62.

USA Today, June 25, 2001, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 49.