Works by
E. Lynn Harris
(Writer)

• Invisible Life: A Novel (1994)
  Invisible Life is the story of a young man's coming of age. Law school, girlfriends, and career choices were all part of Raymond Tyler's life, but there were other, more terrifying issues for him to confront. Being black was tough enough, but Raymond was becoming more and more conscious of  sexual feelings that he knew weren't "right." He was completely committed to Sela, his longtime girlfriend, but his attraction to Kelvin, whom he had met during his last year in law school, had become more than just a friendship. No matter how much he tried to suppress them, his feelings were deeply sexual.
  
  Fleeing to New York to escape both Sela and Kelvin, Raymond finds himself more confused than ever before. New relationships--both male and female--give him enormous pleasure but keep him from finding the inner peace and lasting love he so desperately desires. The horrible illness and death of a friend force Raymond, at last, to face the truth.

• Just As I Am: A Novel (1995)
  E. Lynn Harris's blend of rich, romantic  storytelling and controversial contemporary issues like  race and bisexuality have found an enthusiastic and  diverse audience across America. Readers celebrate  the arrival in paperback of his second novel,  Just As I Am, which picks up where  Invisible Life left off,  introducing Harris's appealing and authentic characters to a  new set of joys, conflicts, and choices. Raymond,  a young black lawyer from the South, struggles to  come to terms with his sexuality and with the grim  reality of AIDS. Nicole, an aspiring  singer/actress, experiences frustration in both her career and  in her attempts to find a genuine love  relationship. Both characters share an eclectic group of  friends who challenge them, and the reader, to look at  themselves and the world around thern through  different eyes. By portraying Nicole's and Raymond's  joys, as well as their pain, Harris never ceases to  remind us that life, like love, is about  self-acceptance. In this vivid portrait of contemporary  black life, with all its pressures and the  complications of bisexuality, AIDS, and racism, Harris  confirms a faith in the power of love -- love of all  kinds -- to thrill and to heal, which will warm the  hearts of readers everywhere.

• And This Too Shall Pass: A Novel (1996)
  In And This Too Shall Pass, Harris takes us into the locker rooms and newsrooms of Chicago, where four lives are about to intersect in romance and scandal.  At the heart of the novel is the celibate Zurich, a rookie quarterback for the Chicago Cougars whose trajectory for superstardom is interrupted by a sexual assault charge by Mia, a sportscaster with her own
  sights on fame.  With his career in jeopardy, Zurich hires Tamela, a high-powered attorney, to defend him, while Sean, a gay sportswriter, covers the story and uncovers his heart.
  
  All of these characters face the challenge of keeping the faith--in themselves and in God--while Harris's heartfelt storytelling reveals how the love of
  family can help one to face the terrible legacy of long-held secrets.
  
  Throughout these characters' search for self-knowledge, Harris weaves the
  stories of MamaCee, Zurich's grandmother, whose lessons of faith teach one and all that "this too shall pass."
  
  Breaking new ground in contemporary fiction, And This Too Shall Pass entertains and affirms with its stirring message about the healing power of family and faith.

• If This World Were Mine: A Novel (1997)
  Four friends, all graduates of Hampton Institute, keep a collective journal they call "If This World Were Mine," and share their personal diaries each month at a gathering filled with humor, gossip, and affirmation. The four group members are as different as the seasons, yet they all share a love of one another. Yolanda, a media consultant, keeps it going on with a no-nonsense attitude and independence that are balanced by the theatrics of Riley, a former marketing executive whose marriage has reduced her to a "kept woman with kids." Computer engineer Dwight's anger at the world is offset by the compassion of Leland, a gay psychiatrist whose clients make him question why God ever invented sex.
  
  But after five years, the once-strong bonds of friendship are weakening, and the group must handle challenges of work, lost love, and a stranger in their midst. As the group members confront their true feelings toward each other, resentments and long-held secrets surface, and the stability of the group begins to disintegrate. Is their past friendship strong enough to survive the future?

• Abide With Me: A Novel (1999)
  In this hotly anticipated conclusion to his popular Invisible Life trilogy, E. Lynn Harris delivers a masterful tale that traces the evolving lives of his beloved characters Nicole Springer and Raymond Tyler, Jr., and reintroduces readers to their respective lovers, best friends, and potential enemies.  Abide with Me moves between the worlds of New York City, where Nicole has recently settled in order to pursue her dream of returning to the Broadway stage, and Seattle, where a late-night phone call from a U.S. Senator is about to change Raymond's life dramatically.  Relationships and ambitions are tested as Harris deftly guides us toward this entertaining novel's conclusion.
  
  Sexy and heartwarming in equal measure, Abide with Me will thrill new readers as well as fans already familiar with Harris's unique take on the universal themes of love, friendship, and family.  E. Lynn Harris has truly done it again.

• Not a Day Goes By (2000)
  Welcome to the irresistible world of E. Lynn Harris...
  
  He is a devilish and handsome ex-football player, now a rising sports agent at one of the hottest firms in the country. Irrepressible and dangerously alluring, John "Basil" Henderson has a history with women (and a few men). Basil is the consummate guy's guy: a commitment-phobe gadfly known for a double-edged magnetism that has the ability to thrill--and wound.
  
  She is the uncompromising Yancey Harrington Braxton, an up-and-coming Broadway star who oozes charm and bleeds ambition. Young, beautiful, and dangerously crafty, Yancey is prepared to do whatever she must to get what she wants. A femme fatale who has left more than a few brokenhearted men in her wake, Yancey is intrigued and besotted by Basil.
  
  Both believe that in each other they've finally met their match.
  
  A lavish wedding is planned, and the ultimate power couple plans to spend their lives in holy matrimony. But just before the nuptials, fate and a little comeuppance from the past threaten the happy couple's future.
  
  Masterful storyteller E. Lynn Harris takes the reader on a delicious ride into the mischievous lives of two very unforgettable characters.

• Any Way the Wind Blows: A Novel (2001)
  At the end of Not a Day Goes By, the terminally bisexual John Basil Henderson declares: “I’m back, in full form. And I’m out there. Roamin’. And switching lanes.” Now, in Any Way the Wind Blows, Basil, good-looking gadabout and homme fatal, is back at the top of his game (razzle-dazzling both the women and the men). All is well until Basil’s picture-perfect life starts to unravel . . .
  Left at the altar a year before, jilted Broadway bombshell Yancey Harrington Braxton stages her comeback–this time as a recording star–but has she forgiven ex-fiancé Basil, or does she still need to even the score? As Yancey’s star continues to rise, her past threatens to catch up with her and she fears someone may be after her as well . . .
  
  In a wicked little dance of revenge, Basil and Yancey struggle to keep their lives on track, while a chorus of unforgettable characters either come to their aid, or make matters worse. In the mix are: Yancey’s mother, Ava “Mama Dearest” Braxton, a diva’s diva and a second-rate showgirl housed in the body of an aging supermodel; the wise and wonderful Windsor Adams; and the new guy in town, Bartholomew “Bart” Dunbar, a rogue’s rogue and handsome hunk of a man who stands to make Basil look like a choirboy.
  
  With just the right amount of wickedness, love, and compassion, Harris’s masterful storytelling and delicious plot twists will have fans and newcomers alike frantically turning pages trying to find the answer to the ultimate question: Does revenge ever really pay?

• A Love of My Own: A Novel (2002)
  After Zola Denise Norwood meets media mogul Davis Vincent McClinton on a New York-bound flight, he makes her a couple of offers before they even land. One is editing his hot new urban style magazine Bling Bling. The other is more personal. As Zola and Raymond Tyler, Jr, Bling Bling’s CEO, pursue their ambitions and search for love, secrets from the past and events out of today’s headlines (plus the shenanigans of John Basil Henderson and Yancey B.) keep the action moving.

• Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing (2002)
  A literary rent party to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation of African-American fiction, with selections to savor from bestselling authors as well as talented rising stars.
  
  Not since Terry McMillan’s Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as:

  • Bertice Berry

  • David Anthony Durham

  • Edwidge Danticat

  • Eric Jerome Dickey

  • John Edgar Wideman

  • Kenji Jasper

  • Terry McMillan

... and many, many more

Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.

• What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir  (2003)
  For almost a decade, beloved storyteller E. Lynn Harris has welcomed you into his family with his passionate, warm and trail-blazing novels. Now, he invites you into the most intimate world ever--his own.
  
  Since his first book Invisible Life was published in the early 1990s, New York Times bestselling author E. Lynn Harris has wowed, charmed and romanced millions of readers. As a master storyteller, E. Lynn Harris has created an intimate and glamorous world centered around his signature themes of love, friendship and family. People all over the world have fallen in love with his characters and laughed and cried with them.
  
  Now, in his most daring act yet, E. Lynn Harris writes the memoir of his life–from his childhood in Arkansas as a closeted gay boy through his struggling days as a self-published author to his rise as a New York Times bestselling author. In What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, E. Lynn Harris shares an extraordinary life touched by loneliness and depression, but more important, he reveals the triumphant life of a small-town dreamer who was able through writing to make his dreams–and more–come true.

• Freedom in this Village: 25 Years of Black Gay Men's Writing (2004) -- Finalist 2005 Lambda Literary Awards for Anthology
  Freedom in This Village charts for the first time ever the innovative course of black gay male literature of the past 25 years. Starting in 1979 with the publication of James Baldwin's final novel, Just Above My Head, then on to the radical writings of the 1980s, the breakthrough successes of the 1990s, and up to today's new works, editor E. Lynn Harris collects 47 sensational stories, poems, novel excerpts, and essays. Authors featured include Samuel R. Delany, Essex Hemphill, Melvin Dixon, Marlon Riggs, Assotto Saint, Larry Duplechan, Reginald Shepherd, Carl Phillips, Keith Boykin, Randall Kenan, Thomas Glave, James Earl Hardy, Darieck Scott, Gary Fisher, Bruce Morrow, John Keene, G. Winston James, Bil Wright, Robert Reid Pharr, Brian Keith Jackson, as well as an array of exciting new and established writers.

• I Say a Little Prayer (2006)
  Chauncey Greer is the owner of Cute Boy Card Company, a thriving company in Atlanta. As a teenager, he was a member of a popular boy band, but left in disgrace when word got out that he and his bandmate D were more than good friends. Chauncey is a free spirit, on the brink of forty with a body admired by both men and women. Not into being categorized, Chauncey’s been known to hook up with men and women, but now in the age of the “down low,” he’s found that women ask too many questions, so he’s just focusing on the fellas.
  
  After one too many bad dates, Chauncey finds himself in church, where the minister’s message inspires him to follow his dream of a singing career once again. Although he’s lost touch with D, as he starts writing songs his thoughts inevitably turn to his former lover. Chauncey’s powerful performance at the church earns him a standing ovation and an invitation to participate in an upcoming revival. But Chauncey soon discovers that an ambitious fundamentalist preacher plans to use the revival to speak out against gays and gay marriage. Feeling angry and betrayed, Chauncey and other gay members of the church decide to take a stand against the church’s homophobia by staging a “Day of Absence” when all of the gay members and their friends and family stay home. Everything is going as planned... until D appears on the scene and Chauncey has to confront his past and make some hard decisions about his future.
  
  I Say A Little Prayer is filled with the delicious plot twists, humor, compassion, and up-to-the-minute controversy fans expect from their beloved “E. Lynn.” Harris has returned with another gem of a novel that will rocket to the top of bestseller lists nationwide

• Love Is Stronger Than Pride: E. Lynn Harris’s New Novella Plus Four Novellas from Debut Authors (2007 release)
  Making use of his signature themes of love and friendship, bestselling author E. Lynn Harris has created Love Is Stronger than Pride, a collection of five novellas, with a signature work from Harris along with the work of four up-and-coming writers. The book will benefit several charities, including the E. Lynn Harris Foundation, the Hurston Wright Foundation, and an endowed scholarship at the University of Arkansas. A contest will be held and readers will vote and decide which unknown novella is the best. The winner will be offered a publishing contract from Harlem Moon.
  
  In "R & B," Harris serves up an irresistible tale featuring two of his most beloved characters–the ever-steady Raymond Tyler and unpredictable bad-boy John “Basil” Henderson. Will pride go before a fall? Or will love finally triumph over self-love?
  
  Dedicated to helping and nurturing the next generation of writers, Harris has provided the perfect launch for new commercial stars, and like Harris's, their dream of being a published author may be fulfilled. The contest details will appear on elynnharris.com.
  
  Let the writing begin.

• The Greatest Pretenders (2007 release)

See also:

• Got to be Real: Four Original Love Stories (2000) by Colin Channer, E. Lynn Harris, Eric Jerome Dickey, and Marcus Major
  Boldly sexy, raucously funny, and unfailingly honest-all readers will be able to identify with, and fall in love with, these original stories from the hottest male voices in African-American Fiction.