Rainbow Rowell

Career

Rowell was a columnist and ad copywriter at the Omaha World-Herald from 1995 to 2012.

After leaving her position as a columnist, Rowell began working for an ad agency and writing what would become her first published novel, Attachments, as a pastime. Rowell had a baby during this period and stopped working on the manuscript for two years. The novel, a contemporary romantic comedy about a company's IT guy who falls in love with a woman whose email he has been monitoring, was published in 2011. Kirkus Reviews listed it as one of the outstanding debuts that year.

In 2012, Rowell completed the first draft of her young adult novel Fangirl for National Novel Writing Month.

In 2013, Rowell published Fangirl and Eleanor & Park, another young adult novel. Both were named by The New York Times as among the best young adult fiction of the year. Eleanor & Park was also chosen by Amazon as one of the 10 best books of 2013, and as Goodreads' best young adult fiction of the year. DreamWorks and Carla Hacken are planning a movie based on the novel, for which Rowell has been asked to write the screenplay.

Rowell's work gained some negative attention in 2013 when a parents' group at a Minnesota high school challenged Eleanor & Park and Rowell was disinvited to a library event; a panel ultimately determined that the book could stay on library shelves. Rowell noted in an interview that the material that these parents were calling "profane" was what many kids in difficult situations realistically had to deal with, and that "when these people call Eleanor & Park an obscene story, I feel like they’re saying that rising above your situation isn’t possible."

Rowell's fourth novel, Landline, a contemporary adult novel about a marriage in trouble, was released on July 8, 2014. Also in 2014, Rowell signed a two-book deal with First Second to author two young adult graphic novels, the first of which will be illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks.

Rowell announced in December 2014 that her fifth book, Carry On, would be published in October 2015. It was published on October 6, 2015. Carry On is based on the book series central to the plot of Fangirl. It acts as the eighth book in a fictional series by Gemma T. Leslie about a boy magician named Simon Snow who attends a magician school called Watford. In his eighth year at school, Simon struggles to come to terms with his calling as the "Chosen One" meant to destroy the Insidious Humdrum, a magical evil force that is destroying the magical world. He embarks on his quest with his best friend Penelope and his girlfriend Agatha, all the while struggling with T. Basilton "Baz" Pitch, his vampire nemesis. Although it exists in a fantasy world and within Fangirl was part of a series, the novel is a standalone book. It is heavily based on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Rowell lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and two sons.