Everette "E." Lynn Harris was born June 20, 1955, in Flint, Michigan, and raised in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas. Before completing high school, he left to attend the University of Arkansas where he was first black male cheerleader as well as the first black editor of the Razorback Yearbook. He graduated with honors with a degree in journalism.
Harris self-published his first book, Invisible Life, and went on to write ten consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Harris won Blackboard Novel of the Year awards for Just As I Am, Anyway the Wind Blows, and A Love of My Own. Harris also received the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence. He was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2003, he came back to the University of Arkansas to teach in the creative writing program.
At the time of his death on July 23, 2009, there were more than four million copies of his books in print.
#1: Composite image of early photo of E. Lynn Harris and still frame from Pryor Center video interview
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#2: Childhood photo of E. Lynn Harris
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#3: E. Lynn Harris grade school photo
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#4: E. Lynn Harris at West Side High School with Bearcat pennant
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#5: E. Lynn Harris, Razorback Yearbook photo, 1975
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#6: E. Lynn Harris, Razorback Yearbook
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#7: Photo of E. Lynn Harris in Razorback Yearbook, 1975
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#8: E. Lynn Harris, Razorback Yearbook, 1977
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#9: E. Lynn Harris and Dionne Harold, Razorback Cheerleaders
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#10: E. Lynn Harris with his friends at a restaurant
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#11: E. Lynn Harris
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#12: E. Lynn Harris, book jacket photo
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#13: E. Lynn Harris and Bobby Jones
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#14: Silas Hunt Legacy Award portrait of E. Lynn Harris, 2006
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#15:
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#16:
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
