Gay Black Author Goes Straight

Best selling writer E. Lynn Harris can still remember the first time he realized he was poor. His family had been invited to the housewarming of a well-to-do family in his hometown of Fayetteville, Ark., and Harris, then a young boy fresh from an afternoon of playing outside, was sitting in the living room when another guest remarked on his appearance.

For much of the visit, he tried desperately to tuck his bare, dusty feet underneath the sofa. It was those childhood memories that helped motivate his success in later years. “I didn’t grow up in the kind of environment that my characters grew up in, or the kind of environment that I live in now,” the 52-year-old author says. “It was one of the things that I always aspired to.” Read more about E. Lynn Harris’ new book at www.courant.com.