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E. Lynn Harris

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.