James Earl Hardy | |
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Born | 1966 (age 57–58) New York City, U.S. |
Occupation |
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Alma mater | St. John's University Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism |
James Earl Hardy (born 1966 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York) is an American playwright, novelist, and journalist. [1] Generally considered the first to depict same-sex love stories that take place within the hip-hop community, his writing is largely characterized by its exploration of the African-American LGBTQ experience. [2] Hardy's best-known work is the B-Boy Blues series. The B-Boys Blues series comprises six novels and one short story. [3] B-Boy Blues was adapted into a play in 2013 and into a film, directed and co-written by Jussie Smollett, in 2021. [4]
Hardy attended undergraduate school at St. John's University and afterward went on to graduate from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1993. [5] [1] From 1992 to 1994, he wrote for Entertainment Weekly as a music journalist. [6]
Alex Sanchez is a Mexican American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults. His first novel, Rainbow Boys (2001), was selected by the American Library Association (ALA), as a Best Book for Young Adults. Subsequent books have won additional awards, including the Lambda Literary Award. Although Sanchez's novels are widely accepted in thousands of school and public libraries in America, they have faced a handful of challenges and efforts to ban them. In Webster, New York, removal of Rainbow Boys from the 2006 summer reading list was met by a counter-protest from students, parents, librarians, and community members resulting in the book being placed on the 2007 summer reading list.
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Dorothy Allison is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of awards for her writing, including several Lambda Literary Awards. In 2014, Allison was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, was a book publishing house which specialized in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the home of award-winning books in the areas of memoir, history, humor, commercial fiction, mystery, and erotica, among many others".
Lesléa Newman is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.
Steve Berman is an American editor, novelist and short story writer. He writes in the field of queer speculative fiction.
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Emanuel Xavier, is an American poet, spoken word artist, author, editor, screenwriter, and LGBTQ activist born and raised in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. Associated with the East Village, Manhattan arts scene in New York City, he emerged from the ball culture scene to become one of the first openly gay poets from the Nuyorican movement as a successful writer and advocate for gay youth programs and Latino gay literature.
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E. Lynn Harris was an American author. Openly gay, he was best known for his depictions of African-American men who were on the down-low and closeted. He authored ten consecutive books that made The New York Times Best Seller list, making him among the most successful African-American or gay authors of his era.
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Karin Kallmaker is an American author of lesbian fiction whose works also include those originally written under the name Laura Adams. Her writings span lesbian romance, lesbian erotica, and lesbian science-fiction/fantasy. Dubbed the Queen of Lesbian Romance, she publishes exclusively in the lesbian market as a matter of personal choice.
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Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the United States-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works that celebrate or explore LGBTQ themes. The awards are presented annually for books published in the previous year. The Lambda Literary Foundation states that its mission is "to celebrate LGBT literature and provide resources for writers, readers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians—the whole literary community."
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B-Boy Blues is a 2021 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jussie Smollett and based on James Earl Hardy's 1994 book about the black LGBTQ+ community in New York. The film stars Timothy Richardson and Thomas Mackie, with Landon G. Woodson, Brandee Evans, Michael Jackson Jr., Marquise Vilson, Jabari Redd, Brian Lucas, Heather B., Broderick Hunter and Ledisi. It follows the relationship between Mitchell Crawford (Richardson), a 27-year old journalist, and Raheim Rivers (Mackie), a 21-year old bicycle messenger and Banjee.