Eric Jerome Dickey, the bestselling author of novels that chronicled the Black experience in America, died in Los Angeles on Sunday at the age of 59, the Associated Press reports. The cause of death was cancer.

Dickey was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as an engineer. He made his literary debut in 1996 with the novel Sister, Sister, about three siblings living in Los Angeles. A reviewer for Kirkus called the book “spirited,” writing, “Dickey is a witty, observant cousin to such writers as Terry McMillan and Connie Briscoe.”

In the following years, he would go on to write 28 more novels, including Cheaters, Chasing Destiny, and The Blackbirds. His most recent book, The Business of Lovers, was published last April, and his last novel, The Son of Mr. Suleman, is slated for publication this spring.

Admirers of Dickey paid tribute to him on social media. Comedy writer Kirby Wilkins tweeted, “This [man’s] books literally changed my life. He was the first author I’ve ever read, and I’ve been in love with reading ever since that. His writing also made me want to become a writer. I’m literally hurt by this news.”

And journalist Wesley Lowery wrote, “I remember sneaking around with my copy of Friends and Lovers in middle school like it was contraband. Secretly reading an Eric Jerome Dickey novel was a teenage [rite] of passage for a generation of black Americans.”

Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.