# Rainbow Rowell
**Rainbow Rowell** is an American author from [Omaha, Nebraska](https://www.edgepedia.org/omaha-nebraska), whose novels about adults and teenagers, her Simon Snow fantasy trilogy, and her comics work have made her a #1 New York Times bestselling writer.[1](https://us.macmillan.com/author/rainbowrowell) She published her first novel, *Attachments*, in 2011, broke through with the young-adult novels *[Eleanor & Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/eleanor-and-park)* and *[Fangirl](https://www.edgepedia.org/fangirl-novel)* in 2013, and has since written fantasy, short stories, and comics.[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Rainbow is her legal name; she has said it appears on her birth certificate[3](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/faq) |
| Home | Omaha, Nebraska, where most of her characters also live[1](https://us.macmillan.com/author/rainbowrowell) |
| Debut | *Attachments*, published April 14, 2011[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/) |
| Breakthrough year | 2013: *Eleanor & Park* (February 26) and *Fangirl* (September 10), both named among the New York Times' best young-adult novels of the year[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/) • [4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/08/rainbow-rowell-carry-on-fangirl-fan-fiction) |
| Simon Snow trilogy | *Carry On* (2015), *Wayward Son* (2019), and *Any Way the Wind Blows*[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/) • [5](https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/0120.pdf) |
| Comics | *Pumpkinheads* with Faith Erin Hicks (2019), plus *Runaways* and *Lois and Clark*[5](https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/0120.pdf) • [6](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/about) |
| Recent adult novels | *Slow Dance* (July 2024) and *Cherry Baby* (April 14, 2026)[7](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/news/2026/4/5/cherry-baby) |
## Early life and career
Rowell has said she always wanted to be a writer: she wrote for her high school and college newspapers, studied journalism, advertising, and English, wrote for a city newspaper, and then left to write advertising copy before turning to fiction.[8](https://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/02/27/one-thing-leads-to-another-an-interview-with-rainbow-rowell/) She worked as a newspaper columnist in Nebraska.[9](https://www.chicklitclub.com/rainbowrowell.html) She has said she did not publish her first book until she was 38.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/aug/07/rainbow-rowell-interview-young-adult-books)
Her name draws frequent questions. She has confirmed that Rainbow is her real name and has explained it as a product of the 1970s, adding that her mother "says she wasn't a hippy, I'm pretty sure she was a hippy."[3](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/faq) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/aug/07/rainbow-rowell-interview-young-adult-books)
## The breakthrough novels
**Attachments** (2011) is a novel about adults: two newsroom friends, Beth and Jennifer, trade long email messages about their romances, unaware that a colleague monitoring the company network is reading them.[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/)
**Eleanor & Park** (February 26, 2013) is a teenage love story set in Omaha in the mid-1980s, over one school year in 1986, between two misfit tenth graders.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/08/rainbow-rowell-carry-on-fangirl-fan-fiction) • [11](https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1677273700/beaufortk12scus/b4romj4dgieiifvwqv8x/17-EleanorParkbyRowellRainbowBackgroundInformationforReviewCommittee.pdf) It rose up the bestseller list on word of mouth from booksellers, librarians, and the young-adult literature community, and it received a 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/08/rainbow-rowell-carry-on-fangirl-fan-fiction) • [8](https://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/02/27/one-thing-leads-to-another-an-interview-with-rainbow-rowell/) Rowell has described the dysfunctional home life she gave Eleanor as partly autobiographical, drawing on her own experience of being bullied and living in a rough neighborhood.[9](https://www.chicklitclub.com/rainbowrowell.html) Alongside John Green's *The Fault in Our Stars*, the book was credited by literary agents and editors with helping make contemporary realistic YA a hot category in publishing.[12](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/62116-kids-getting-real.html)
**Fangirl** (September 10, 2013) follows Cath, a shy freshman whose identical twin Wren wants independence at university, and who would rather hide in the fan fiction she writes about the fictional wizard Simon Snow than make friends.[13](https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/sep/02/review-fangirl-rainbow-rowell) The in-world Simon Snow series is an affectionate riff on the [Harry Potter](https://www.edgepedia.org/harry-potter) phenomenon, and the novel weaves the fictional series' extracts and Cath's own fan fiction directly into the text.[14](https://www.editorsreads.com/books/fangirl/) The Guardian's Elizabeth Minkel called it arguably the first novel about fan fiction to see mainstream success, and it was named a New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of 2013 and an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/08/rainbow-rowell-carry-on-fangirl-fan-fiction) • [8](https://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/02/27/one-thing-leads-to-another-an-interview-with-rainbow-rowell/)
**Landline** (July 8, 2014) returned her to adult fiction: television writer Georgie McCool, separated for the week from her husband Neal, finds a magical landline telephone in her childhood home that connects her to Neal in the past.[15](https://time.com/2969872/rainbow-rowell-landline/)
## The Simon Snow trilogy
*Carry On* (October 6, 2015, St. Martin's Griffin, 528 pages) takes the fictional series inside *Fangirl* and writes it as a real novel, set at the Watford School of Magicks, a boarding school for young wizards whose Chosen One, Simon Snow, does not quite fit the role.[16](https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-rainbow-rowell-patrick-ness-20151011-story.html) • [17](https://time.com/4057286/inside-the-magic/) Reviewer Lev Grossman described it as playing off Harry Potter without being fan fiction, and noted that the Simon Snow character began life in *Fangirl*.[17](https://time.com/4057286/inside-the-magic/) Rowell herself has rejected the fanfiction label: "I don't think it's fanfiction, I think it's more like canon! Because even though Simon Snow is fictional inside of Fangirl, I still had to make him up."[18](https://time.com/3714753/rainbow-rowell-interview/) An author's note in the book states that while readers may recognize familiar elements from *Fangirl*, *Carry On* is neither a book from the imaginary series nor Cath's fan fiction, but a different story altogether.[16](https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-rainbow-rowell-patrick-ness-20151011-story.html)
The trilogy continued with *Wayward Son* (September 24, 2019) and *Any Way the Wind Blows*, in which Simon, Baz, and Penny return to England to find their place in the post-Mage World of Mages.[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/) • [5](https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/0120.pdf) Reviewers have noted that the later books engage directly with fanfiction as text and offer a more LGBT-friendly magic-school story than the series that inspired it.[19](https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/any-way-the-wind-blows-by-rainbow-rowell/)
## Comics, short stories, and recent novels
Rowell's comics work includes *Pumpkinheads*, a 2019 graphic novel with illustrator Faith Erin Hicks set in a pumpkin patch in Omaha where two best friends have worked every fall of high school, as well as runs on *Runaways* and *Lois and Clark*.[5](https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/0120.pdf) • [6](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/about) Her short story collection *Scattered Showers* appeared November 8, 2022, and includes "If the Fates Allow," a story about Reagan, Cath's roommate from *Fangirl*.[2](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/) • [3](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/faq)
Her recent adult novels are *Slow Dance* (July 2024) and *Cherry Baby* (April 14, 2026), in which Cherry, hurt by her husband's viral semiautobiographical webcomic, reclaims her life.[7](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/news/2026/4/5/cherry-baby) • [20](https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/rainbow-rowell) Rowell has described *Cherry Baby* as a second-chance love story that, like the Simon Snow trilogy, takes a genre apart while telling its own story.[7](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/news/2026/4/5/cherry-baby)
## Writing process
Rowell wrote much of *Fangirl*'s first draft during [National Novel Writing Month](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-novel-writing-month), producing more than 50,000 words in November at about 2,000 words a day without rereading or editing. She has said the method kept her immersed in the story and led her to create Levi, a character she would have been afraid to write under normal circumstances, and that she has written in that style since.[8](https://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/02/27/one-thing-leads-to-another-an-interview-with-rainbow-rowell/) She describes her books as dialogue-heavy, a style she hoped would carry over into comics writing.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/aug/07/rainbow-rowell-interview-young-adult-books)
She has also spoken about censorship and free speech in an interview with the National Coalition Against Censorship, saying "I don't want to be a safe writer," and naming *Carry On* as one of her hardest books to write.[21](https://ncac.org/censorship-news-articles/i-dont-want-to-be-a-safe-writer-an-interview-with-rainbow-rowell) In the mid-2010s she wrote a first-draft screenplay adapting *Eleanor & Park* for DreamWorks, saying "I had never written a book before I wrote a book. I'm going to do my best."[18](https://time.com/3714753/rainbow-rowell-interview/)
## References
1. [Rainbow Rowell, Authors, Macmillan](https://us.macmillan.com/author/rainbowrowell)
2. [Books by Rainbow Rowell, Kirkus Reviews](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/rainbow-rowell/)
3. [FAQ, Rainbow Rowell official site](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/faq)
4. [Elizabeth Minkel, "Rainbow Rowell's Carry On: meta-fan fiction, or simply a novel?", The Guardian, October 8, 2015](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/08/rainbow-rowell-carry-on-fangirl-fan-fiction)
5. [Trends: Newsmaker, American Libraries Magazine, January 2020](https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/0120.pdf)
6. [About, Rainbow Rowell official site](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/about)
7. ["Meet Cherry," Rainbow Rowell official site, April 5, 2026](https://www.rainbowrowell.com/news/2026/4/5/cherry-baby)
8. ["One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Rainbow Rowell," The Hub, YALSA, February 27, 2014](https://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/02/27/one-thing-leads-to-another-an-interview-with-rainbow-rowell/)
9. [Chicklit Club author interview, May 2012](https://www.chicklitclub.com/rainbowrowell.html)
10. ["Rainbow Rowell interview: 'YA books teach you that your weird stuff is normal,'" The Guardian, August 7, 2014](https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/aug/07/rainbow-rowell-interview-young-adult-books)
11. [Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, Background Information for Review Committee](https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1677273700/beaufortk12scus/b4romj4dgieiifvwqv8x/17-EleanorParkbyRowellRainbowBackgroundInformationforReviewCommittee.pdf)
12. ["How Reality Became the Hot New Thing in YA," Publishers Weekly](https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/62116-kids-getting-real.html)
13. ["Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, review," The Guardian children's books site, September 2, 2014](https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/sep/02/review-fangirl-rainbow-rowell)
14. ["Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Review & Summary," Editors Reads](https://www.editorsreads.com/books/fangirl/)
15. ["Rainbow Rowell's Landline is a Screenplay Waiting to Happen," TIME, July 9, 2014](https://time.com/2969872/rainbow-rowell-landline/)
16. ["Harry Potter echoes in new books by Rainbow Rowell and Patrick Ness," Los Angeles Times, October 11, 2015](https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-rainbow-rowell-patrick-ness-20151011-story.html)
17. [Lev Grossman, "Another Book About Wizarding Boarding School," TIME, October 1, 2015](https://time.com/4057286/inside-the-magic/)
18. ["Eleanor & Park Author Rainbow Rowell Talks Fifty Shades and Franzen," TIME, February 19, 2015](https://time.com/3714753/rainbow-rowell-interview/)
19. [Katy Armstrong, "Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell," Strange Horizons](https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/any-way-the-wind-blows-by-rainbow-rowell/)
20. [Rainbow Rowell, HarperCollins author page](https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/rainbow-rowell)
21. ["'I Don't Want to be a Safe Writer': An Interview With Rainbow Rowell," National Coalition Against Censorship](https://ncac.org/censorship-news-articles/i-dont-want-to-be-a-safe-writer-an-interview-with-rainbow-rowell)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Writers and literary biographies › Children's, comics, and media-genre writers › Children's and YA authors › Young adult authors*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license