James Earl Hardy

James Earl Hardy (born 1966 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York) is an American playwright, novelist, and journalist. 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. Hardy's best-known work is the B-Boy Blues series. The B-Boys Blues series comprises six novels and one short story. B-Boy Blues was adapted into a play in 2013 and into a film, directed and co-written by Jussie Smollett, in 2021.

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. From 1992 to 1994, he wrote for Entertainment Weekly as a music journalist.