E. Lynn Harris

E. Lynn Harris was an openly gay writer of a particular genre that brought to light the life of the closeted black gay men for millions of black women readers. His audience dutifully waited for every novel to arrive at the bookstores in anticipation of learning how to spot that elusive Closeted Black Gay Man depicted in his storyline on the subway, in the grocery store or at the gym. I remember many years ago my book club invited Mr. Harris to do a reading of his first novel. We waited with bated breath to edit, revise, counter attack and attest the poorly written piece of material that would go on to sell to millions of readers. Well, he arrived at our chosen destination and was greeted enthusiastically by my peers and then we dove head first into the book and Mr. Harris with all of his wit/humor finally shot back to us, "Write your own DAMN novel". We laughed and applauded loudly to this comment and this sealed our friendship with Mr. Harris. Since then I've seen Mr. Harris at various events around the country and enjoyed his company. It's a great loss to the community as a whole and to the devoted readers of his books who looked forward to the next episodes of his characters and their exploits. Dead at the age of 54 is too young to leave this earth. I shall never forget his quick wit and wonderful spirit.