Photo: Jasmin Shah
Eddy L. Harris is a critically acclaimed author, lecturer, filmmaker, and above all a traveler.
Part memoir, part reportage, his books combine adventure with questions of race and identity and always have place as their foundation.
Eddy’s work poses the fundamental question of our time: where does the individual belong, where does the individual fit?
Mississippi Solo
Harris published his first work, Mississippi Solo, an account of his journey by canoe down the entire length of the nation's major waterway, in 1988.
This work combined aspects of journalism, travel writing, autobiography and memoir, and personal reflection, and, as with Harris's subsequent works, focused specifically on questions of African-American identity in relation to history and place.
Native Stranger: Black American's Journey into the Heart of Africa
The Black American author of Mississippi Solo chronicles his personal odyssey through Africa, detailing the people and diverse landscapes of the continent and reflecting on his feelings of alienation from the land of his ancestors.
Buy book: Amazon
“Eddy Harris isn't your everyday tourist.
His travels almost always have a purpose and that purpose is to write about not only what he sees, but what he feels.”
— USA Today
South of Haunted Dreams: A Memoir
The author recounts his motorcycle journey through the South, discusses what it means to be Black, and describes his search for traces of his own great-great grandfather.
“One of the few recent books that deserve the overused adjective ‘important.’” — Outside
Buy book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble (eBook)
Still Life in Harlem: A Memoir
Harris reveals the magic of Harlem, as it becomes spirit and home in his masterful hands. Through his keen perceptions, readers come to understand the significance of Harlem to those who live there and to those who only yearn to come to it.
“An anguished and eloquent meditation on the soul of Black America.” — The New York Times Book Review
Buy book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble