essay about j.k rowling

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Humble beginnings

Harry potter and success, harry on the big screen and on stage, writing for adults, honors and controversy.

What did J.K. Rowling write?

How did j.k. rowling become famous.

• Do adults read children's literature?

J.K. Rowling

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• Official Site of J. K. Rowling
• J.K. Rowling - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• J.K. Rowling - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
• Table Of Contents

What is J.K. Rowling famous for?

J.K. Rowling is the British author who created the popular and critically acclaimed Harry Potter series (seven books published between 1997 and 2007), about a lonely orphan who discovers that he is actually a wizard and enrolls in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

In addition to the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling wrote such companion volumes as Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (2001) and cowrote a story on which the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016) was based. Her adult fiction includes The Casual Vacancy (2012) and the Cormoran Strike series (as Robert Galbraith).

J.K. Rowling started writing about Harry Potter after graduating from the University of Exeter. After a brief marriage and the birth of her daughter, Rowling settled in Edinburgh and lived on public assistance between stints as a French teacher and writing. After many rejections, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published to immediate success.

What is J.K. Rowling’s real name?

J.K. Rowling was born Joanne Rowling. After her publisher recommended she use a gender-neutral pen name, she chose J.K., adding the middle name Kathleen. She published her crime fiction series, which includes The Cuckoo’s Calling , under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

Recent News

J.K. Rowling (born July 31, 1965, Yate, near Bristol, England) is a British author, creator of the popular and critically acclaimed Harry Potter series, about a young sorcerer in training.

After graduating from the University of Exeter in 1986, Rowling began working for Amnesty International in London , where she started to write the Harry Potter adventures. In the early 1990s she traveled to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language, but, after a brief marriage and the birth of her daughter, she returned to the United Kingdom, settling in Edinburgh . Living on public assistance between stints as a French teacher, she continued to write.

The first book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997; also published as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ), was released under the name J.K. Rowling. (Her publisher recommended a gender-neutral pen name; born Joanne Rowling, she used J.K., adding the middle name Kathleen.)

The book was an immediate success, appealing to both children, who were its intended audience, and adults. Featuring vivid descriptions and an imaginative story line, it followed the adventures of the unlikely hero Harry Potter, a lonely orphan who discovers that he is actually a wizard and enrolls in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The book received numerous awards, including the British Book Award. Succeeding volumes— Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)—also were best sellers, available in more than 200 countries and some 60 languages. The seventh and final novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , was released in 2007.

The Harry Potter series sparked great enthusiasm among children and was credited with generating a new interest in reading. Film versions of the books were released in 2001–11 and became some of the top-grossing movies in the world. In addition, Rowling wrote the companion volumes Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (2001), which was adapted into a film series (2016, 2018) that featured screenplays by Rowling; Quidditch Through the Ages (2001); and The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008)—all of which originated as books read by Harry Potter and his friends within the fictional world of the series. Proceeds from their sales were donated to charity.

She later cowrote a story that became the basis for the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , which premiered in 2016 and was a critical and commercial success, winning an unprecedented nine Olivier Awards, including best new play. In the production, Harry is a husband and father but is still struggling with his past, while his son Albus must contend with his father’s legacy . A book version of the script, which was advertised as the eighth story in the Harry Potter series, was published in 2016. Two years later the play transferred to Broadway, and in 2018 it won six Tony Awards , including best new play.

Rowling made her first foray into adult fiction with The Casual Vacancy (2012; TV miniseries 2015), a contemporary social satire set in a small English town. In 2013 it was revealed that the author had penned the crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling , using the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The Silkworm —the second book in the series, which centred on the detective Cormoran Strike, a down-on-his-luck war veteran—was released in 2014. Later installments included Career of Evil (2015), Lethal White (2018), Troubled Blood (2020), and The Ink Black Heart (2022). A television series based on the books premiered in the United Kingdom in 2017 and in the United States the following year. In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowling began serializing a new children’s book, The Ickabog , for free online; it was published in November. She described the fairy tale , which was unrelated to Harry Potter, as an exploration of “truth and the abuse of power.” She later published The Christmas Pig (2021), about a boy who loses his favourite toy and then embarks on a fantastical quest to find it.

Rowling was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001. In 2009 she was named a chevalier of the French Legion of Honour .

However, in June 2020, Rowling drew unaccustomed criticism for taking exception on social media to an article that referenced “people who menstruate.” In part, Rowling tweeted “‘People who menstruate .’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out.” Rowling’s comments were seen as being unsympathetic to or out of touch with the transgender community . Some of the actors in the Harry Potter series, including Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson publicly opposed the author, while others, including Ralph Fiennes , Helena Bonham Carter , and Robbie Coltrane expressed support.

J.K. Rowling

Who Is J.K. Rowling?

J.K. Rowling, is a British author and screenwriter best known for her seven-book Harry Potter children's book series. The series has sold more than 500 million copies and was adapted into a blockbuster film franchise.

Rowling was born Joanne Rowling on July 31, 1965, in Yate, England. She adopted her pen name, J.K., incorporating her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for the latter initial (Rowling does not have a middle name).

While struggling to support her daughter Jessica and herself on welfare, Rowling worked on her first book in the Harry Potter series. The idea for the book reportedly occurred to her while she was traveling on a train from Manchester to London in 1990.

READ MORE: J.K. Rowling's Incredible Rags to Riches Story

'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone'

After a number of rejections, Rowling finally sold her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, for the equivalent of about $4,000; it hit shelves in June 1997. The word "Philosopher" in the book’s original title was changed to "Sorcerer" for its publication in America.

The book was the start of a seven-book series chronicling the life of the young wizard Harry Potter and his motley band of cohorts at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'

The second book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , came out in July 1998.

'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'

The third book in Rowling's series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , hit shelves in July 1999. By the following summer, the first three Harry Potter books had earned approximately $480 million in three years, with over 35 million copies in print in 35 languages.

'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'

The phenomenal response to Rowling's books culminated in July 2000, when the fourth volume in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , became the fastest-selling book in 24 hours ever. The book saw a first printing of 5.3 million copies and advance orders of over 1.8 million.

'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'

After a postponed release date, the fifth installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , hit bookstores in June 2003.

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'

The sixth installment, released in July 2005, sold 6.9 million copies in the United States in its first 24 hours. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was the biggest opening in publishing history.

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'

Prior to its July 2007 release, the seventh and final installment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , was the largest ever pre-ordered book at Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores and at Amazon.com. Rowling does not plan to write any more books in the series, although she has not entirely ruled out the possibility.

READ MORE: Harry Potter : The Real-Life Inspirations Behind J.K. Rowling's Characters

'The Tales of Beedle the Bard'

This collection of five fables mentioned in the Harry Potter book series, The Tales of Beedle the Bard , was released on December 4, 2008, at a tea party for 200 schoolchildren at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Rowling donated all royalties from the book to the Children's High Level Group (which has been renamed Lumos ), a charity that she co-founded to support institutionalized children in Eastern Europe.

'The Casual Vacancy'

Rowling's first book aimed at adults, The Casual Vacancy , was published in September 2012. The novel, a dark comedy about a local election in the small English town of Pagford, received mixed reviews.

A book review in The New York Times called the novel "disappointing" and "dull." A review in The Telegraph , however, gave the book three out of five stars, stating that “Jane Austen herself would admire the way [Rowling] shows the news of Barry’s death spreading like a virus round Pagford."

'Cuckoo Calling,' 'The Silkworm,' 'Career of Evil,' and 'Lethal White'

In April 2013, Rowling broke into a new genre, crime fiction, with a novel she published under the pen name Robert Galbraith. In the first few months following the release of Cuckoo Calling , the novel had modest sales and received positive reviews. Sales for the work skyrocketed in July when its author's identity was discovered.

According to Bloomberg News, Rowling said that "I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name."

Rowling published three more books under the pen name Robert Galbraith: The Silkworm in June 2014 and Career of Evil , released in October 2015, followed by Lethal White in September 2018.

'Very Good Lives' (Rowling’s Harvard commencement speech)

In April 2015, Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in book form as Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination .

The self-improvement guide offers personal anecdotes and advice on how to embrace failure and use your imagination to succeed. Proceeds from the book benefit Lumos, Rowling’s non-profit children’s organization.

‘Harry Potter: A History of Magic’

In 2017, Rowling announced on her website that she would publish two new books for an exhibition at the British Library that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the publication of her first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone .

The books, Harry Potter: A History of Magic (described as the adult version) and Harry Potter: A Journey Through a History of Magic (the kid-friendly version), were released on October 20th and feature manuscripts, original illustrations and an exploration of the Harry Potter characters and magic.

In May 2019, it was reported that Rowling would be publishing four more Harry Potter stories. However, the author cleared up the confusion on her website, explaining that the “bite-sized e-reads” contain no new material. The A Journey Through… e-books were adapted from a companion audiobook to History of Magic narrated by Natalie Dormer.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S J.K. ROWLING'S FACT CARD

'Harry Potter' Movies

A film version of Rowling’s first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , was released in November 2001 and was directed by Chris Columbus and starred Daniel Radcliffe , Emma Watson and Rupert Grint .

In its opening weekend in the U.S., the film debuted on a record 8,200 screens and smashed the previous box-office record, earning an estimated $93.5 million ($20 million more than the previous record-holder, 1999's The Lost World: Jurassic Park ). It ended the year as the top-grossing movie of 2001.

The second and third films in the series — Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), directed by Columbus, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), directed by Alfonso Cuarón — each enjoyed similar record-breaking box-office success. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , directed by Mike Newell, was released in 2005.

The fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , directed by David Yates, was released in 2007. The film featured a script by screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, who replaced Steve Kloves, scriptwriter of the first four films.

The film version of the sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, directed by Yates, was released in July 2009. The final film for the seventh book in the series was released in two installments: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011), both directed by Yates .

'Fantastic Beasts' Film Series

In 2013, Rowling announced a new film series with Warner Bros. According to Entertainment Weekly , Rowling explained that the movies, based on her 2001 Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, would draw from "the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years," but "is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the 'Harry Potter' series, but an extension of the wizarding world."

Developed from a script by Rowling — her screenwriting debut — and starring Eddie Redmayne , Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was released in November 2016. Following in the footsteps of Rowling's previous creations that made it to the big screen, Fantastic Beasts dazzled audiences with its depictions of sorcery and grossed more than $800 million worldwide.

The film's sequel generated controversy ahead of its planned November 2018 release date for the decision to include Johnny Depp in the cast. During a time when influential Hollywood actors and executives were coming under fire for past indiscretions, fans were troubled by the allegations of domestic abuse that contributed to Depp's divorce from Amber Heard.

However, in late 2017, both Rowling and Warner Bros. issued statements in support of Depp. “The filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies,” said Rowling.

In 2014, Rowling published a short story about grown-up Harry Potter and a Hogwarts school reunion on her website Pottermore . Since the site launched, she’s added more stories and information about all things Harry Potter.

‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ Play

In June 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , a two-part play written by Jack Thorne and based on an original idea by Thorne, Rowling and director John Tiffany, debuted on the London stage to a sold-out audience.

Although she had originally stated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would be the final book in the series, the play features an adult Harry Potter and has been officially touted as the eighth installment of the series.

The play’s cast differs from that of the original films. The next month, as with her previous books, fans lined up at bookstores pending the midnight release of Jack Thorne’s script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child .

Husband and Children

On December 26, 2001, Rowling married anesthetist Dr. Neil Murray at the couple's home in Scotland. They have two children together, David (born in 2003) and Mackenzie (born in 2005). Rowling has one child, Jessica (born 1993), from her previous marriage.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: J.K. Rowling
• Birth Year: 1965
• Birth date: July 31, 1965
• Birth City: Yate, England
• Birth Country: United Kingdom
• Gender: Female
• Best Known For: J.K. Rowling is the creator of the 'Harry Potter' fantasy series, one of the most popular book and film franchises in history.
• Fiction and Poetry
• Astrological Sign: Leo
• University of Exeter
• St Michael's Primary School in Winterbourne
• Wyedean School and College
• Interesting Facts
• Before J.K. Rowling published her 'Harry Potter' series, she was a single mom on welfare.
• As of 2017, Rowling's net worth is about $850 million dollars.

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: J.K. Rowling Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/jk-rowling
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 29, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized and I still had a daughter that I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
• Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.
• Hopefully, after 'Harry,' I'll still be publishing. That's what I want.
• For a few years, I did feel I was on a psychic treadmill, trying to keep up with where I was. Everything changed so rapidly, so strangely. I knew no one who'd ever been in the public eye. I didn't know anyone—anyone—to whom I could turn and say, 'What do you do?' So it was incredibly disorienting.
• The worst that could happen is that everyone says, 'That's shockingly bad.'
• You don't expect the kind of problems wealth brings with it. You don't expect the pressure.
• Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve.
• To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.
• Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.

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The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

Harry potter author j.k. rowling's delivers harvard's 2008 commencement address.

J.K. Rowling , author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. For more on the 2008 Commencement Exercises, read  "University Magic."

Text as delivered follows.  Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates. The first thing I would like to say is 'thank you.' Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world's largest Gryffindor reunion. Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard. You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement. Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this. I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination. These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me. Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me. I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now. So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor. I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom. I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools. What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure. At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers. I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment. However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown. Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew. Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality. So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies. The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned. So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes. Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared. One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International's headquarters in London. There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes. Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments. Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind. I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness. And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed. Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone. Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read. And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before. Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life. Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's places. Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise. And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know. I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy. One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing. But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden. If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better. I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children's godparents, the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister. So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. I wish you all very good lives. Thank you very much.

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Biography of J.K. Rowling

Joanne Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Gloucestershire, England. Her parents, Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling (née Volant), met during a train ride from King’s Cross Station to Scotland, where they both intended to join the Royal Navy. When Anne complained of being cold on the train, Peter offered to share his coat with her, and the couple was married a little more than a year later. After their marriage, Peter and Anne left the navy and moved to the outskirts of Bristol, where Anne gave birth to Joanne Rowling and, less than two years later, a second daughter, named Dianne.

When Rowling was four years old, the family moved to Winterbourne, a nearby village. Although the two sisters frequently fought, they were extremely close, and Rowling would amuse Dianne by telling her imaginative stories, many of which she would write down. These stories would inspire long, dramatic scenarios that were enacted during their playtime, with the girls playing all of the parts. During their time in Winterbourne, Rowling also became friendly with a brother and sister who lived across the street and had the last name of Potter, a name which Rowling admitted she liked much more than her own.

In 1974, when Rowling was nine years old, the family moved again, this time to the country village of Tutshill in Wales. Almost at the same time as the family’s move, Rowling suffered the loss of her favorite grandmother, Kathleen (whose name she would eventually add to her own to come up with the pen name, J.K. Rowling). She finished her primary school studies at St. Michael’s Primary School, whose benevolent headmaster, Alfred Dunn, would supposedly serve as the inspiration for Professor Dumbledore.

At the age of eleven, Rowling began studying at Wyedean Comprehensive School and College. Lacking any natural athletic ability and with few friends, the lonely Rowling dedicated herself to her studies and her love of literature. Her interest in literature and writing was fueled when her aunt gave her a copy of Jessica Mitford’s autobiography, Hons and Rebels . Rowling promptly read all of Mitford’s other books and became a huge fan of the author. Interestingly, Rowling has commented on her studious adolescence, saying “Hermione is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was 11, which I'm not particularly proud of.” Rowling also supposedly based another Harry Potter character on an individual from Wyedean: John Nettleship, the head of science during her time at the school, has acknowledged himself as the inspiration for the malignant Professor Snape.

Despite her problems at Wyedean, Rowling continued to foster a secret hope of becoming a writer throughout her adolescence. This hope was encouraged by her close school friend, Sean Harris, to whom she dedicated the second book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . Rowling’s teenage years were also made more difficult when her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

In 1983, Rowling graduated from Wyedean and began attending Exeter University for her B.A. in French. Although Rowling wanted to study English, her parents convinced her that a career as a bilingual secretary would give her more stability than a job in literature could. After graduation, Rowling moved to London and began to work as a bilingual secretary for Amnesty International, an organization that campaigns against human rights abuses. Rowling admits that she was not a very good secretary; instead of taking notes during meetings, she would jot down story ideas.

During a train ride from London to Manchester in 1990, Rowling first came up with the idea of a young boy who does not know that he is a wizard. Too shy to ask any of the other passengers for a pen, Rowling kept the ideas in her mind until the train arrived in Manchester, and then she immediately began to work on the story. Shortly after this initial inspiration, Rowling’s mother finally succumbed to multiple sclerosis, dying in December of 1990. Her death was a huge blow to Rowling and would greatly influence the direction of the story about the young wizard and the loss of his parents.

Still devastated by her mother’s death, Rowling moved to Portugal in 1991 to work as an English teacher at a language institute. She brought her ever-growing book manuscript with her and, during her first week in Portugal, wrote the twelfth chapter of the book, “The Mirror of Erised.” While in Portugal, Rowling met and married a Portuguese journalist and gave birth to a daughter, Jessica, in 1993. However, the marriage was rocky, and, in December of 1993, Rowling returned to Britain with her daughter and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland to be near her sister.

Unfortunately, in order to get a teaching position in Scotland, Rowling needed a postgraduate certification of education (PGCE), which required a year-long course of study. While unemployed and looking for a job, Rowling spent nearly every evening working on the book in local cafés while her daughter was asleep in her stroller.

After Rowling finished the book in 1995, she sent the first three chapters off to agents and began the course of study needed for the PGCE. The second agent that she contacted decided to take on the project and spent almost a year trying to find a publisher. The small Bloomsbury Children’s Books finally accepted the manuscript and published the book under the name Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in June 1997. Soon after its publication, Rowling’s book began to win numerous awards, including the British Book Award, the Nestle Smarties Book Prize, and the Children's Book Award.

Scholastic Press bought the American rights to the book (giving it the title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ) and paid Rowling enough money to quit teaching and support herself solely by writing the next books in the Harry Potter series. The sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , was published in England in July 1998 and in America in June 1999, and the third book of the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , was published in England in July 1999 and in America in September 1999.

These first three Harry Potter books took the three top spots on the New York Times Bestseller List and earned Rowling $400 million, promptly making her the richest author in the world. In 1998, Rowling sold the film rights to the Harry Potter series, and the first film in the franchise was released in 2001. Rowling completed the remaining four books in the Harry Potter series between 2000 and 2007, with the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , selling 15 million copies within the first twenty-four hours of its release.

In 2001, Rowling married Neil Michael Murray, a British anesthetist, and gave birth to their son, David, in 2003 and their daughter, Mackenzie, in 2005. Since her completion of the Harry Potter series, Rowling has received honorary degrees from St. Andrews University, the University of Edinburgh, Napier University, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Exeter, and Harvard University, as well as the Légion d’honneur from French President Nicolas Sarkozy. She is also an avid philanthropist and has donated much of her time and wealth to the Volant Charitable Trust, the charity One Parent Families, the Children’s High Level Group, and the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh University.

Long after the novel series concluded, the Harry Potter world and franchise continues to grow with sites like Pottermore and the Fantastic Beasts films, which expand upon and create new apocryphal lore. Rowling has found herself at the center of controversy surrounding some of these new materials, including the creation of an American version of Hogwarts, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that critics and scholars say completely disregards and disrespects indigenous populations and portrays colonialism in a favorable light. More recently, Rowling has been criticized over a tweet defending Maya Forstater, a researcher with a history of making anti-trans comments on social media. Rowling has since published a highly controversial essay on her personal website entitled, "J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues," which has caused several Potter fan sites to distance themselves from the author.

Rowling has stated that she has no intention of continuing the Harry Potter series, but she has written The Tales of Beedle the Bard , a book of fairy tales mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , and has mentioned writing a definitive encyclopedia of Harry Potter's world.

Study Guides on Works by J.K. Rowling

The casual vacancy j.k. rowling.

When you are the author of one of the most successful children's fiction series of all time, deciding how to follow up on your success can be quite a dilemma. Fortunately, J.K. Rowling decided to commit to a number of "firsts" when she tackled the...

• Study Guide

The Christmas Pig J.K. Rowling

As part of her ongoing attempt to recapture that lightning in a bottle which made her a household name in millions of households around the globe with the publication of the original Harry Potter novel, J.K. Rowling published The Christmas Pig in...

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling

British author J.K. Rowling said that the idea for the Harry Potter series “fell into her head” in 1990 while she was riding a train from Manchester to London without a pen to write it down. While she started to write it that evening, her progress...

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child J.K. Rowling , Jack Thorne , John Tiffany

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play written by playwright Jack Thorne, directed by John Tiffany, and based on an original story by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

The story begins nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts in the...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling

The Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter franchise (excluding Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ) written by J. K. Rowling. It's a phenomenal conclusion to this epic saga and was published by Bloomsbury...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series. Harry Potter is a book series about a young wizard who is trying to defeat Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort is a powerful Dark wizard who has killed many...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth and penultimate novel of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series. The book series about a young wizard who is set to defeat a dark wizard named Lord Voldemort, who killed his parents when he was...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling. In this book, Harry struggles under the heavy responsibility to face the evil Lord Voldemort and save the people he loves most. It is...

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone tells the story of an eleven-year-old orphan who suddenly discovers that he is a wizard. J.K. Rowling began writing the book in 1990, prompted by a delayed train ride from Manchester to London during which she...

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third novel in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. In this book, the saga continues as Harry is faced with dementors, the soul-sucking guards of Azkaban prison that bring icy depression into the...

Ickabog J.K. Rowling

Written for children between seven and nine (Rowling remarked that the book is a "political fairytale for slightly younger children"), The Ickabog tells the story of a fantasy land called Cornucopia, which is plagued by an evil creature known as...

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The Role of Magical Animals in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone

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Examination of C. S. Lewis’, Chronicles of Narnia, and J. K. Rowling’s, Harry Potter

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A Reaction to The Kairos Moment in The Goblet of Fire as Highlighted in The J.k. Rowling's Novel Series

The proper response to a moment of kairos in the goblet of fire in the harry potter series, a novel series by j.k. rowling, destiny and choice in never let me go and harry potter and the half-blood prince, harry potter and the chamber of secrets: book review, j.k. rowling’s depiction of the personality of severus snape as illustrated in harry potter, the questionable nature of the monsters in harry potter universe, harry potter: biblical allusions in the third book of the series, the similarities between j. k. rowling's harry potter and the sorcerer's stone and the deathly hallows, j.k. rowling's spiritual themes in harry potter, the relationship between harry potter and the sorcerer's stone and economics, harry potter and the goblet of fire vs. arthurian literature, identity formed by choices in harry potter and the sorcerer's stone, harry as the sacrificial lamb in harry potter, grandfather paradox in j.k. rowling's "harry potter", a review of the harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban, analysis of j. k. rowling’s book, harry potter and the goblet of fire, success of the harry potter series.

31 July 1965

Author, philanthropist

Fantasy, drama, young adult fiction, tragicomedy, crime fiction

• Harry Potter series
• Cormoran Strike series

31 July 1965 (age 56)

J.K. Rowling is a British author and philanthropist, creator of the popular and critically acclaimed Harry Potter series, about a young sorcerer in training.

“Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them”, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”

According to Rowling, the main theme of her Harry Potter books is death. Other major themes in the series include the divide between good and evil, friendship, prejudice, corruption, and madness.

Rowling's Harry Potter series has been credited with a resurgence in crossover fiction: children's literature with an adult appeal. Children's literature rose in cultural status, and fantasy became a dominant genre.

Rowling is known for her charitable works where she contributes significant sums to charities such as Anti-Poverty, Multiple Sclerosis Research and Lumos Foundation. On top of that, she created the Volant Charitable Trust in 2000 to help children and women in Scotland.

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

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J.K. Rowling talks in depth for the first time about her writing

J.K. Rowling is often asked questions by her fans about her writing process: from where she writes, to her inspiration, editing process and much more.

Here for the first time, she responds to those questions, talking openly and in depth about her writing including Harry Potter, The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig as well as writing as Robert Galbraith, the Cormoran Strike crime fiction series.

Watch the first episode here.

25 April 2024

All seven Harry Potter audiobooks to be transformed into new full-cast audio editions!

Pottermore Publishing and Audible are working on an exciting project: all seven Harry Potter audiobooks set to be released with a full-scale ensemble cast.

28 February 2024

First Look at Christmas at Hogwarts

Christmas at Hogwarts – a heartwarming and joyfully illustrated gift book sure to delight readers of all ages, celebrating Harry Potter’s first Christmas in the wizarding world is to be published globally on 15th October 2024.

27 November 2023

Introducing The Christmas Pig Readalong!

Throughout the month of December, join us on our Instagram and Facebook channels for this year’s The Christmas Pig readalong. Find out more about how you can join in at home below!

Is J.K. Rowling transphobic? Let’s let her speak for herself.

An exhausting — if not exhaustive — timeline of J.K. Rowling’s transphobia.

by Aja Romano

J.K. Rowling’s supporters frequently claim the author has never actually said or done anything transphobic. It’s a position you can see on social media, in the pages of the New York Times , and even on a new podcast with Rowling herself.

It’s also an easily debunked lie.

Some of this confusion around Rowling’s opinions can be cleared up with a definition of transphobia , which doesn’t — despite the “phobia” — solely mean fear of trans people, but, per Merriam-Webster, also an “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender people.” (In fact, Merriam-Webster’s own examples list cites multiple articles related to Rowling.) Rowling can say she likes everyone, but she has displayed that prejudice time and again. She’s also peddled explicit fear of trans people, particularly trans women, insisting they’re an inherently dangerous threat to cisgender women.

Although some in the media distort the anger directed at Rowling from trans activists, trans people, and allies, the truth is those feelings — not just anger, but betrayal and grief — are justified. Rowling has made her antagonistic position on trans issues clear through tweets, sound bites, actions, and even a 3,600-word blog post . By 2024, her transphobia has become so rampant and constant that it’s difficult to build a completely comprehensive timeline of it. For those attuned to it, she doesn’t have to spell it out every single time; it’s a huge part of her identity. These dog whistles only lead to more confusion, however, allowing people to point to the absence of immediately obvious bigotry to claim she’s being unfairly maligned. Additionally, she increasingly threatens detractors with legal action , which contributes to critics of her behavior falling silent . Conspicuously, many of her legal threats appear to be directed at individuals identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Since Rowling began airing her views, her community, especially online where many of these conversations are had, is now stacked with similarly minded people who share her transphobic beliefs. For instance, Rowling is friends with numerous anti-trans activists, including Helen Joyce, who’s made alarmingly transphobic statements calling for a “reduction” in the number of trans people. She’s tweeted public support for anti-gay , anti-trans activist Caroline Farrow . These connections are part of a social network echo chamber of trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs (sometimes called “radfems” or the “gender-critical” movement). In Rowling’s native UK, TERFism has gained a unique stronghold over some particularly vocal, ostensibly liberal feminists like Rowling.

The facts we can easily point to suggest that Rowling has been turning toward an anti-trans stance over a long period, beginning mostly with simple engagement on social media and leading to fiery and extremist statements. While labeling something transphobic is a serious accusation, and not something we do lightly, it’s important to recognize Rowling’s bigotry for what it is. The rundown that follows shows her growing embrace of transphobic, even extremist rhetoric.

2014: Rowling writes The Silkworm , the second novel in the Cormoran Strike mystery series, which involves a trans woman who is portrayed as conspicuous and unable to pass . The book includes a scene where the main character gleefully threatens this character with prison rape.

October 2017: Rowling “likes” a tweet linking to a controversial, since-deleted Medium article referring to a theoretical trans woman in a female space as “a stranger with a penis.” While liking a tweet might seem small, this is notable because the piece made the basic argument Rowling continues to make today, namely that trans women are by default part of a “male-bodied” group who are dangerous to women and who should not have access to women’s bathrooms . In the public sphere, this kicks off questions about whether Rowling is anti-trans, which are followed by the author entrenching further.

​​2018: In March, Rowling “ likes” (and then unlikes) a tweet referring to trans women as “men in dresses” and implying that trans rights are “misogyny.” A JKR spokesperson later claims that this “like” was an accident and that Rowling was having “a middle-aged moment.”

In September, Rowling “ likes” a tweet linking to an opinion column by known TERF Janice Turner , which argues yet again that trans women are inherently sexual predators, referring to them as “fox[es] in a henhouse ... identify[ing] as [hens].” The myth that trans women are a danger to cis women is a grossly transphobic stereotype with almost no real-world justification , but Rowling pins most of her anti-trans arguments on it, using her experience as a survivor of domestic abuse to justify her prejudice.

December 2019: In a shift toward openly voicing her anti-trans sentiments, Rowling vocally supports the plaintiff of an employment discrimination suit in the UK. Maya Forstater became a cause célèbre in the TERF community after suing the company that chose not to renew her contract. In 2018, Forstater posted numerous anti-trans tweets , both generalizing about trans people and directly targeting one nonbinary person. The tweets made staff members at her company uncomfortable, and ultimately, in March 2019, the organization declined to renew Forstater’s contract. Rowling’s tweet , in which she distorts trans identity and the facts of the case, marks the first time many people become aware of her growing transphobic tendencies.

June 2020: In a tweet, Rowling mocks the trans-inclusive phrase “people who menstruate” in an article about pandemic menstrual health, implying that the phrase, meant to encompass trans men and nonbinary people, erases, overrides, or obscures the word “women.”

In a follow-up to the previous tweet and the backlash it spawned, Rowling posts a thread implying that trans activists are “erasing the concept of [biological] sex” and along with it “the lived reality of women.” She also states, “I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans.” (To date, she has not.)

Days later, Rowling produces her most overt and lengthy discussion of her views, a 3,600-word manifesto published on her website responding to “the new trans activism.” The post is replete with myths and false transphobic stereotypes, particularly revolving around the narratives that gender and biology are inextricable and that trans women are dangerous. Rowling states the movement offers “cover to predators”. She also repeatedly amplifies the alarmist, false idea that teens are transitioning as part of a social media trend, a claim based on a handful of inaccurate and shady scientific studies claiming that an outsize number of trans teens will detransition later, studies that have since been widely debunked .

August 2020: After the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization issues a statement repudiating her transphobia, Rowling doubles down on her position and returns an award given to her by the org in 2019.

September 2020: Rowling releases the Cormoran Strike book Troubled Blood and is widely criticized after she creates a villain who preys on women by wearing women’s clothes. This is exactly the specter of a sexual predator that Rowling believes hides behind the label of “trans woman.”

December 2020: In an interview with Good Housekeeping, Rowling claims that “90 percent” of Harry Potter fans secretly agree with her anti-trans views, but that “many are afraid to speak up because they fear for their jobs and even for their personal safety.” This once again stereotypes trans activists as an angry, entitled, and vicious mob.

July 2021: Rowling tweets a screenshot of a tiny account — reportedly with around 200 followers at the time — of a self-identified trans user who mentions her in a tweet discussing gender identity . Since Rowling did not remove the trans user’s information in the screenshot that went out to her 14 million followers, that user is subsequently inundated with transphobic harassment and ultimately deletes their Twitter account.

November 2021: Rowling publicizes that a group of three trans people shared a photo of themselves holding protest signs outside of her house, saying that she had called the police out of alarm (a fact Scottish police also verified). Rowling claims that these protesters had “doxxed” her, and the media runs with this report, which plays into the larger evolving media narrative of Rowling as a victim of trans harassment. But as many people have pointed out , Rowling’s address is publicly known — so well-known, in fact, that it is a frequent fan tour stop. Police later officially state there is “ no criminality ” in what the trans protesters had done.

As trans culture vlogger Jessie Earl points out , trans people themselves are at much higher risk of experiencing doxxing, bullying, and harassment than cisgender people. Earl also notes that Rowling has supported and platformed (through Twitter likes, follows, and retweets) multiple TERFs who had themselves doxxed other people, including Marion Millar, who faced criminal charges for homophobically doxxing a police officer (though those charges were dropped pending review ); Rosie Duffield, an MP who drew criticism for “ publicly outing ” a staff member who resigned over her transphobia; and Rosa Freedman, a professor who doxxed a student who emailed her requesting a chat about her views on trans equality.

“War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.”

December 2021: Rowling shares a Sunday Times article that mocks the Scottish police for recognizing transgender identity. In her tweet , she parodies 1984 , writing, “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.”

Later that month, in the middle of a thread ostensibly attempting to support trans equality, Rowling tweets , “The question at the heart of this debate is whether sex or gender identity should form the basis of decisions on safeguarding, provision of services, sporting categories and other areas where women and girls currently have legal rights and protections.” The idea behind what Rowling is saying is that allowing trans women equal access to those spaces will erode current legal rights for cisgender women and girls. This is a position that only makes sense if you are denying that trans women and girls are women and girls. Rowling then adds an insistence on separating “sex” from “gender,” an essentialist idea that contradicts current medical practice and scientific research, which advocates for treating gender identity as linked primarily to the brain , not anatomy.

March 2022: In response to a since-deleted tweet (which was itself a reply to a tweet in which Rowling implied trans women were “predators”), Rowling tweets about a sexual assault committed by a trans woman, using this single incident to imply that all trans women should be denied access to public spaces designated for women.

The next day, on International Women’s Day, Rowling posts a series of tweets maligning gender-inclusive language and mockingly referencing Voldemort by sarcastically opining that the day in future would be known as “She Who Must Not Be Named Day.” She also explicitly criticizes gender-inclusive legislation.

Later that month, British lawyer Alison Bailey partially wins an employment discrimination lawsuit in which she claimed that she was discriminated against because of her gender-essentialist views. While the lawsuit was in progress, Rowling posted a tweet urging her followers to financially support Bailey.

August 2022: Rowling’s latest Cormoran Strike book, The Ink Black Heart , once again comes under fire for transphobia because of its depiction of a character broadly viewable as a satirical stand-in for Rowling herself — an anti-trans public figure who is “canceled” by the internet on trumped-up charges of transphobia and then killed.

December 2022: Rowling screencaps a thread about the controversial new Hogwarts Legacy video game by the aforementioned popular transgender YouTuber Jessie Earl, a.k.a. Jessie Gender. Earl points out that supporting the franchise would “justify her continued targeting of trans people”; Rowling, in response, sarcastically accuses Earl of practicing “purethink,” implying trans advocacy is a type of religious dogma. An onslaught of transphobic social media harassment targeting Earl follows.

This month, Rowling also personally funds a new domestic violence support center in Edinburgh, Scotland, which explicitly excludes trans women ; Rowling frames this new center as offering “women-centered and women-delivered care.” Edinburgh’s longstanding domestic violence support center has had a trans woman as its director since 2021. Trans women, in particular women of color, are at a vastly higher risk of experiencing domestic violence and sexual assault than cisgender women.

January 2023: Rowling posts that she is “Deeply amused by those telling me I’ve lost their admiration due to the disrespect I show violent, duplicitous rapists.” The most immediate context for this comment is presumably both the backlash to Hogwarts Legacy and the ongoing backlash over Rowling’s views writ large regarding trans women being dangerous predators. So a reasonable implication of Rowling’s words seems to be that she considers trans women, by default, to be “violent, duplicitous rapists.”

March 2023: A new podcast , The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling , produced by Bari Weiss’s The Free Press and hosted by prominent former Westboro Baptist Church member Megan Phelps-Roper, featured interviews with Rowling. In its fifth episode , Rowling begins discussing the modern trans rights movement, calling it “a cultural movement that was illiberal in its methods and questionable in its ideas” and insisting, “I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement and that it must be challenged.”

She then compares the movement to Death Eaters — the villainous supremacists in her books, analogous to Nazis:

[S]ome of you have not understood the books. The Death Eaters claimed, “We have been made to live in secret, and now is our time, and any who stand in our way must be destroyed. If you disagree with us, you must die.” They demonized and dehumanized those who were not like them. I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious, misogynistic movement, that has gained huge purchase in very influential areas of society. I do not see this particular movement as either benign or powerless, so I’m afraid I stand with the women who are fighting to be heard against threats of loss of livelihood and threats to their safety.

While Rowling can say she only intends to target the specific trans activists who are angry at her, that’s an impossible distinction. She does not mention any formal group or entity that represents trans rights that has acted against her. The only context we have for what she is responding to are non-affiliated individuals on Twitter sending angry messages in response to her transphobic comments. Indeed, the episode is titled “The Tweets” and features Phelps-Roper reading angry and sad tweets from former fans of Rowling. This generalization doesn’t distinguish “the movement” from people who are simply angry and upset with Rowling. Instead, it seems to imply that “good” trans people are the ones who accept Rowling’s version of their identity and allow her viewpoint — that they aren’t who they say they are — to dominate their fight for social acceptance.

Trans people are estimated to comprise about half a percent of populations in both the US and the UK . A 2018 study from UCLA found no evidence to support that anti-trans legislation makes designated public spaces safer, but did find that “reports of privacy and safety violations in these places are exceedingly rare.” In essence, there was no danger to begin with.

February 2024: Rowling donated £70,000 (about $90,000) to an anti-trans Scottish political lobby campaigning to restrict the Scottish government’s definition of “women” to cisgender women only.

March 2024: On March 13, Rowling appears to deny on X (formerly Twitter) that trans people were targeted during the Holocaust. This all started when Rowling reposted a post by James Esses about having been “canceled.” Esses is a blogger and former student who was fired from his counseling job and expelled from his therapy degree program for his anti-trans campaigning.

Esses’s post claimed he was fired for opposing the use of puberty blockers for trans children. In the threads of Esses’s post, in response to one of his supporters but also copying both Esses and Rowling, a user responded with, “The Nazis burnt books on trans healthcare and research, why are you so desperate to uphold their ideology around gender?”

Rowling then takes this post and screencaps it, asking , “I just… how? How did you type this out and press send without thinking ‘I should maybe check my source for this, because it might’ve been a fever dream’?”

The literal burning by Nazis of books and research from Berlin’s pioneering Institute for Sexual Research , which conducted the world’s first gender-affirming surgeries for trans people, was captured in German newsreels at the time and has been well-documented since, including by the UK’s own Holocaust Memorial Day Trust . Calling this very well-sourced history a “fever dream” quickly drew significant backlash from X users, with many framing it as a form of Holocaust denial. When challenged on her claim with multiple sources by Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo, Rowling first responds that the original post had made claims it didn’t say: that the Nazis burnt all research on trans health care, and that trans people were the first victims of the Nazis.

Rowling then doubles down on X by quote tweeting another tweet claiming trans people were not targets of the Nazis during the Holocaust. In her quote, Rowling frames the verified history of Nazi violence toward trans people as “persistent claims.” She then, again in response to Caraballo’s pushback in reply, attempts to separate “trans-identifying people” from “gay people, who were indeed victims of heinous treatment by the Nazis.”

Caraballo’s reply , which cited sources including Scientific American , and a thorough accounting by a historian about the ways trans people faced persecution under Nazi Germany, did not receive a rejoinder from Rowling.

April 2024: On April 1, 2024, Rowling posted a thread on X pegged to the implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which added “threatening or abusive behaviour which is intended to stir up hatred” around a number of identities, including age, religion, and transgender identity to the hate crimes statute; the law does not, somewhat controversially, include hatred of women . In her posts, Rowling spotlit a number of women, from a handful of convicted or reported sex offenders to UN appointees Katie Neeves and Munroe Bergdorf as well as Mridul Wadhwa, head of a Scottish rape crisis center. All of the women Rowling listed are reportedly trans — leading the author to write , “Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren’t women at all, but men, every last one of them.” Rowling ended the thread with the hashtag #ArrestMe.

May 2024: As part of an X discussion that began with Rowling deliberately misgendering a trans soccer manager, she doubled down in response to criticism, both by claiming that trans women are “crossdressing straight men” and by comparing trans identity to cultural appropriation.

“Do I get to be black if I like Motown and fancy myself in cornrows?” she wrote . “What if I claim the authentic me has always been black and that you’re being racist to me? Would that be OK, or would you find it ludicrous and deeply offensive?” She did not respond to the many platform users who replied to address her use of racist stereotypes or to point out that race, unlike gender, is a genetic identity.

August 2024: Rowling contributed to ongoing harassment of and attacks on Olympics boxer Imane Khelif, who was one of two female boxers disqualified by the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA) from the 2023 World Championships after an unspecified biochemical test. The test detected elevated levels of testosterone in Khelif’s system; while the specific reason for this result is unconfirmed, cis women can have elevated testosterone levels due to natural differences in sex characteristics. Although Khelif is a woman and was assigned female at birth, many extremists have used this vague test result to attack her with transphobic rhetoric, accusing her of being a man in disguise.

Both Khelif and the other IBA-disqualified athlete, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, qualified under the International Olympic Committee guidelines and were approved to compete in the Olympics. But following a dramatic match on August 1, in which Khelif’s opponent Angela Carini of Italy forfeited in under a minute after exchanging just a few hits, Khelif once again came under scrutiny from transphobes on the suspicion of secretly being a man. Among the transphobic commentary she faced was vitriol from J.K. Rowling, who tweeted a photo of Khelif looking at Carini after Carini abruptly retired.

Carini, shown in tears in the photo after withdrawing as Khelif looks on, refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the match, which may have contributed to the belief she had been unfairly treated in the ring. She later said to the BBC, however, that she wished to apologize to Khelif for not shaking her hand — an act Carini explained came from anger at herself, not Khelif.

Rowling, however, saw things much differently. In her tweet , she framed the photo as a misogynistic assault, writing, “The smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered. #Paris2024”

Again, Khelif was born female and has always been a cisgender woman. Rowling seems to be arguing that any hormone-related variance at all among women — despite the millions of women who have hormone imbalances — is enough to render them inauthentic or not “real” women. It’s an alarming development in her ongoing shift into extreme transphobic views.

It’s also deeply ironic. One of the points Rowling first made in her lengthy 2020 manifesto was about the need for cisgender women not to feel limited by the confines of normative gender expression. “In spite of everything a sexist world tries to throw at the female-bodied, it’s fine not to feel pink, frilly and compliant inside your own head,” she wrote, and later: “Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanised to the extent they are now.” Yet Rowling’s transphobia has progressed to such an extent that she has herself become a denigrator of a cisgender woman and a reinforcer of “compliant” femininity against Khelif.

Khelif, who went on to win Olympic gold despite the harassment, reportedly filed a lawsuit alleging cyberbullying against Rowling (Elon Musk is also named in the suit). Shortly after the lawsuit became public on August 13, Rowling went silent on X, leading to speculation from many onlookers that she had pushed her transphobic narrative too far. On August 23, though, she again appeared on the platform, spreading more false and misleading commentary on Khelif. Her first post was a quote from a transphobic hit piece against Khelif by Colin Wright, the former managing editor of the far-right website Quillette. She then went on to repost another transphobic statement, this time criticizing a recent Australian court ruling that upheld the legal rights of trans women.

Clarification, March 3, 2023, 12:15 pm ET : Updated to clarify details of the character who is “canceled” in The Ink Black Heart.

Clarification, March 16, 2023, 3:20 pm ET: Updated to clarify that Rowling’s remarks drew a comparison between the Death Eaters and the trans rights “movement,” rather than trans people.

Update, August 23, 2024, 6:15 pm ET: This story, originally published March 3, 2023, has been updated several times, most recently with Rowling’s return to social media following transphobic remarks about a cisgender Olympics athlete.

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Here’s What J.K. Rowling Has Actually Said About Trans People

On Wednesday, the New York Times received two open letters — one from advocacy and human-rights groups and another from hundreds of contributors — urging the paper to reform its approach to covering stories about transgender people. According to GLAAD , the Times has routinely adopted a devil’s-advocate approach in articles that question medically accepted standards for gender-affirming care . Its reporting has been used by conservative politicians to justify new laws targeting trans youth, and it has published pearl-clutching columns worrying that gender-inclusive language amounts to the erasure of women or that giving children more latitude to express their gender undoes some of feminism’s gains.

For all of those reasons, GLAAD’s first request of the Times is that it “stop printing biased anti-trans stories” immediately. Instead, one day after the letters went public, the paper published another divisive opinion by Pamela Paul, the columnist who authored both of the takes mentioned above. On Thursday, Paul came out with “ In Defense of J.K. Rowling ,” an op-ed arguing that criticism of the author — whose definition and understanding of womanhood seems to hinge on biological sex — as transphobic is neither fair nor accurate. Paul doesn’t take the time to analyze the Harry Potter author’s actual comments but nonetheless concludes the following:

Nothing Rowling has said qualifies as transphobic. She is not disputing the existence of gender dysphoria. She has never voiced opposition to allowing people to transition under evidence-based therapeutic and medical care. She is not denying transgender people equal pay or housing. There is no evidence that she is putting trans people “ in danger, ” as has been claimed, nor is she denying their right to exist.

No, she simply doesn’t seem to believe that trans women really are women — an attitude that denies the validity of their existence. When Rowling flags herself as an ally — when she writes that “trans people need and deserve protection” or “I want trans women to be safe” — she routinely follows up with some form of “but” that draws a thick line between trans women and all other women. That is why some of Rowling’s former fans have branded her a TERF ( trans-exclusionary radical feminist ), and while she dislikes the label, she shares the gender-essentialist view at its core: that womanhood is fixed, intrinsic, and anatomically determined. Rowling has stuck to this line for years, even though doctors and scientists agree that sex assignment and gender are not the same thing.

The first controversy came in December 2019, when Rowling tweeted her support for Maya Forstater , a British researcher whose contract was not renewed when the think tank that employed her found “offensive and exclusionary” language — such as her statement that “men cannot change into women” or “ transwomen are male ,” to name just a few examples — in her social-media and Slack history. In Rowling’s retelling, this was a case of a woman being “forced” out of her job “for stating that sex is real” — an oversimplification but a telling one. Trans-exclusionary feminism relies on the idea that “sex is a biological fact and is immutable,” as Forstater would put it, and that it determines whether a person is a man or a woman.

Operating on that premise, Rowling has identified menstruation as a hallmark of womanhood, wondering what to call “people who menstruate” in a June 2020 tweet . “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,” she  wrote , “Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” This, too, received pushback: Having a uterus is a prerequisite for getting a period, and while many people in that camp are cisgender women, many others are trans men, nonbinary people, the list goes on. At the same time, lots of cisgender women can’t or don’t get periods for a wide range of biological reasons including menopause, an overactive thyroid, and polycystic ovary syndrome. In response to the criticism of her quip, Rowling reiterated her stance: “If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”

The truth is that sex isn’t the decisive factor in determining identity that Rowling thinks it is. What of people born with XXY chromosomes, androgen insensitivity syndrome, or ambiguous genitalia? But Rowling won’t let it go, and her obsession seems rooted in a misplaced fear — that trans women will harass, assault, even rape “natal girls and women” if they are allowed to use the same protected spaces. In an essay addressing the June 2020 Twitter controversy, “ TERF Wars ,” Rowling acknowledged that trans people, and particularly trans women, face disproportionate rates of violence. According to a recent study , they are more than four times as likely as cisgender people to experience rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault — including at the hands of a partner. But, Rowling wrote, “When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman — and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones — then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.” It’s not, though. There’s no evidence to suggest that trans people are committing crimes in bathrooms.

Every time she starts talking about trans issues, Rowling seems to resurface another damaging and debunked misconception. She has claimed, erroneously, that youths who transition often “grow out of their dysphoria” and regret their decision — an attitude that is, right now, guiding Republicans as they restrict access to gender-affirming care for minors . She has speculated that hormone therapy is just “a new kind of conversion therapy for young gay people.” In that sense, beliefs like Rowling’s are dangerous — particularly when they’re peddled by a figure with her level of reach and influence.

Paul and Rowling are both cisgender women — a status for which neither is under attack (I say all of this as a cisgender woman myself), but which naturally means they can’t speak with authority on what it means to be a transgender woman. Yet when Rowling’s trans readers say, “What you said hurt me and here’s why,” she seems to skip over introspection and springs to self-defense. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, yes, but opinions can be offensive too. They can be bigoted. They can be factually unsupported. They can be damaging. They can do harm — intentionally or not. That’s something Paul and the Times don’t seem to grasp.

• j.k. rowling
• transphobia
• the new york times
• trans rights

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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / Writers / J. K. Rowling

J. K. Rowling Essay Examples

J.k. rowling: analysing her biography as a role model and writer.

J.K. Rowling she is an amazing book writer and a Role Model. In the next few paragrahs I will write about JK Rowling as a writer and influencer, this informational essay will be started with her biography and then we will explore what significant influence...

Biography of J.k. Rowling

“The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must, therefore, be treated with great condition. ” -J. K. Rowling (J. K Rowling Quotes). J. K. Rowling had once said that quote and as you go through her life, you can see how it...

The Comparison Between Gorge R. R. Martin and Jk Rowling 

The comparison between two amazing British writers who earned people ‘s attention for their amazing work in their field of writing, both are very successful and hard working, but they sometimes have differences and similarities and many people compare the their writing to one another...

J.k. Rowling and John Green

J. K. Rowling and John Green are both very famous authors. J. K. Rowling and John Green were both creative and outstanding writers. J. K. Rowling is a fiction author while John Green is a realistic fiction author. Both of them had an interesting childhood...

Gender Stereotypes and Typical Gender Roles in J.k Rowling’s Harry Potter

My question for my extended project qualification is “Does J. K Rowling support of discourage gender stereotypes and typical gender roles?”. To begin with I thought that this question would be quite one sided and that I would struggle to find research that opposed my...

Biography and Accomplishments of Joanne Rowling

Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, England, United Kingdom on July 31, 1965. She lived with her father and her mother, as well as her younger sister named Di. Even when Joanne was little, she loved books and had the idea of being an author....

The Life of J.k. Rowling

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Resilience and J.k Rowling

Resilience means knowing how to cope in spite of setbacks, or barriers, or limited resources. Resilience is a measure of how much you want something and how much you are willing, and able, to overcome obstacles to get it. Good morning/afternoon College Leadership Team, today...

Enchanted World: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

The Harry Potter books are effective upon their release. The Harry Potter books portray us as muggles, non-magical individuals who live our lives not knowing the presence of wizards. The books enable us to imagine an enchanted world that we can't see. Wizards are typically...

J.k. Rowling Harvard Speech: Rhetorical Analysis

On June 5th of the year 2008, thousands of people of all ages came to Cambridge Massachusetts, to watch the author of the beloved Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling give her commencement speech at Harvard University. She stood before this crowd and delivered a...

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About J. K. Rowling

31 July 1965 (age 57) Yate, Gloucestershire, England

Author, philanthropist, film producer, television producer, screenwriter

University of Exeter Moray House

Fantasy, drama, young adult fiction, crime fiction

She has won numerous accolades for her Harry Potter book series, including general literature prizes, honours in children's literature and speculative fiction awards.

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