Author E. Lynn Harris: Black gay men abandoning my books because of mainstream status
”I still continue to write about [the ‘down-low’ phenomenon] because I see a whole new generation of these young men…. I found out from reading the blogs that a lot of black gay men had abandoned me three or four books ago because they thought I was writing for women, and that — you know, not necessarily showing them in the best light in that my characters are good-looking and wealthy, and a lot of their lives are not like that…. Am I too far removed from the black gay community to understand what’s going on? Do I have more chances at meeting someone like [the book’s rich, popular athlete, ] Dre than the average gay man? … The majority of my friends, the majority of the people that I’m close to are heterosexual. And it doesn’t say — it’s not like ‘passing’ or anything like that. It’s just, that’s who I feel comfortable with at this point of my life…. The mere fact that I’m so mainstream has seemed to hurt my popularity among the people whom I started writing these books for.”
NY Times’ Bestselling author E. Lynn Harris speaking with talk show host Michele Martin about his works about the relationships of gay African-American men and his new book, ”Basketball Jones.” (NPR, Tell Me More)
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