Howard Philips SmithHoward Philips Smith, Los Angeles, California, grew up on a farm in rural Mississippi and attended the University of Southern Mississippi and the Universite de Bourgogne, Dijon. He began writing about pre-AIDS New Orleans and the gay ball scene durin the early 1980s, the so-called Golden Age of Gay Carnival. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband and three cats. Read More Read Less