Meet the author

J.K. Rowling.

Writer · United Kingdom · b. 1965

J.K. Rowling: author of the seven-volume Harry Potter series — one of the dominant children's-book franchises ever published, and a near-universal anchor of UK 9–14 reading.

J.K. Rowling is a British author born in 1965, the author of the seven-volume Harry Potter series (1997–2007), one of the bestselling and most culturally dominant children's book series ever published. The Harry Potter novels follow Harry from age eleven to seventeen through Hogwarts, an escalating war with Voldemort, and a Bildungsroman of friendship, courage and moral choice that has anchored a generation of middle-grade and YA reading. Rowling has also written The Casual Vacancy (adult) and the Cormoran Strike crime novels (as Robert Galbraith, adult, out of scope), plus the Fantastic Beasts screenplays. Her work and public statements have become contested in the wider culture; the Harry Potter books themselves remain near-universal in UK children's reading culture.