Harry Thomas, Jr. (he/him) is the author of SISSY! (University of Alabama Press, 2017), an academic study of effeminacy which won the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature. A gay man raised in Tallahassee, FL, Harry has written in a wide variety of genres. Regardless of form, the enduring obsessions of Harry's writing are masculinity, the U.S. South, and queer folks' experiences within it. He lives, with his partner and two cats, in Durham, North Carolina.

Harry's most recent work in fiction is a novel-in-progress about a group of teen weirdos battling a cult in small town Alabama in the 1990s. Other examples of his fiction include:

• "Crabwalking." Fourteen Hills, 14:1 (Winter 2008).
• "North Florida Style." Lodestar Quarterly, Issue 17 (Spring 2006).
• "Loser Leave Town." Lodestar Quarterly, Issue 12 (Winter 2004).

Harry's recent nonfiction is drawn from an in-progress essay collection about growing up and coming out in the U.S. South.

• "That's No Way to Live Your Life: My Family's Gay Hairdresser." Southern Cultures 32:1 (Spring 2026).
• "Fear and Shame Will (Not) Keep You Safe." Waxing and Waning's The Subversive Issue (Prose Winner), 2024.
• "My Fictional First Boyfriend." Under the Gum Tree 51 (Spring 2024).

In his early twenties, Harry worked in newspaper and magazine journalism. His work was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Austin American-Statesman, OUT magazine, and Rolling Stone. Some samples of his work include:

• A Rolling Stone Q&A with Weezer's Rivers Cuomo.
• A Rolling Stone "Hot List" from Radiohead's Ed O'Brien.

Harry earned a Ph.D. in American Literature from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012.

• Book:
  • SISSY!: The Effeminate Paradox in U.S. Literature and Culture (University of Alabama Press, 2017)—Winner of the Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature.
  • Harry discussing the book on NPR.
  • A University of Alabama profile of Harry.
• Articles:
  • “Afterword.” The Bitterweed Path by Thomas Hal Phillips: 75th Anniversary Edition (UNC Press, 2025).
  • “‘Immaculate Manhood’: The City and the Pillar, Giovanni’s Room, and the Straight-Acting Gay Man.” Twentieth Century Literature 59.4 (Winter 2014). 596-618.
  • “Good Old Boy Masculinity and Same-Sex Desire in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Bitterweed Path.” Invisible Suburbs: Recovering Protest Fiction in the 1950s United States. Ed. Joshua B. Lukin. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 2008. 3-22.
  • “‘a wanderer on the earth’ and ‘a son of the community’: Place and the Question of Queers in the Rural Souths of Lee Smith and Randall Kenan.” The North Carolina Literary Review 17 (2008): 117-130.
  • “Hunting Stories and Stories Told About Hunting: What Isaac McCaslin Thinks He Learns in the Big Woods.” Mississippi Quarterly 60.3 (Summer 2007): 561-578.