American writer Eric Garber, better known by his pseudonym Andrew Holleran, was BOTD in 1944. Born on the Caribbean island of Aruba to American parents, he was raised in Aruba, moving with his family to Florida in his late teens. He studied literature at Harvard College, where he began a relationship with Peter Taylor, following him to the University of Iowa where they both attended the college’s famed Writers’ Workshop. After a brief period at law school at the University of Pennsylvania, he was drafted into the US Army to serve in the Vietnam War. An administrative error resulted in his being posted to West Germany, where he sold his first short story to the New Yorker and, more importantly, had his first experience of gay sex. After being discharged from the Army, he returned briefly to law school, leaving to pursue gay sex and disco in 1970s New York City. He became an overnight literary celebrity with his 1978 debut novel Dancer from the Dance, a lyrical and melancholy portrait of New York City’s gay scene. Released simultaneously with Larry Kramer‘s novel Faggots, it was highly praised (and favourably compared with Kramer’s scorched-earth satire) and hailed as a milestone in the burgeoning sub-genre of gay literary fiction. In 1980, he joined The Violet Quill, a gay writers’ group with distinguished members including Edmund White, Felice Picano and his longtime friend Robert Ferro. He relocated to Florida in 1983 to care for his mother, publishing his second novel, Nights in Aruba in the same year. Ground Zero, his 1988 collection of essays about the HIV/AIDS crisis, originally published in Christopher Street magazine, was praised as one of the foremost records of the epidemic. His later works include the novel The Beauty of Men, the short story collection In September, the Light Changes and the long-form essay Grief, inspired by the death of his mother. His most recent novel, The Kingdom of Sand, was published in 2022. Regarded as one of the finest prose stylists in American literature, his work has influenced generations of gay writers, notably Tony Kushner and Garth Greenwell.