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.