E. Lynn Harris - Biography

Biography

Born Everette Lynn Jeter in Flint, Michigan, Harris moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, with his mother at the age of 3. Upon his mother's marriage to Ben Harris, his surname was changed to Harris. By the time he was 13 years old, his mother divorced his stepfather who had abused Harris for years. Harris also had homes in Houston, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, and Fayetteville, Arkansas. In his writings, Harris maintained a poignant motif, occasionally emotive, that incorporated vernacular and slang from popular culture.

Harris became the first black male cheerleader as well as the first black yearbook editor while attending the University of Arkansas. He was also his college's chapter president of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. After graduation, he became a computer salesman with IBM, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard for 13 years living in Dallas, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. In 1990, Harris attempted suicide during a dark phase of depression and heavy drinking but later found the will to live in his writing. Harris relieved himself of his salesman duties and quit in order to begin writing his first novel. Harris was initially unable to land a book deal with a publishing house for his first work, Invisible Life, so he published it himself and sold copies from his car trunk. Since then, he has signed onto Doubleday Publishing and ten of his novels have achieved New York Times bestseller status.

Alongside fiction, Harris had also penned a personal memoir, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.