The author who sparked my imagination and my love for fantasy.
JK Rowling
From the moment I saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in theaters, I was absolutely enchanted with the world that J.K. Rowling had created. Over the course of my childhood and adolescence, I accumulated a steady collection of souvenirs related to the series: first the DVD of the first movie, followed by lego sets, and the books themselves. I read the entire series and saw all of the movies. Like lots of kids my age, I sometimes wished that I would one day receive my letter to Hogwarts. I soon found myself reading other books in the fantasy genre that would grant me temporary entrance into other worlds of fantasy, and began creating fantastical worlds through my own writing.
When the final book was published, I attended a bookstore party to celebrate. I have fond memories of that night, walking to the bookstore dressed in a wizard’s robe for a night of festivities with other Harry Potter fans, culminating with the release of the book at midnight.
It is not only Rowling’s fiction that inspired me. I had known some bits of her biography previously, but hadn’t known the full extent of her struggles around the time she wrote Harry Potter until I read an article about her in Reader’s Digest: “J.K. Rowling and the Flames of Failure,” an excerpt from her commencement speech at Harvard.
During the time Rowling wrote Harry Potter, she had become a divorced single parent who was struggling financially. Yet through this time of difficulty, she still found the effort and the inspiration to write the book that would enchant and inspire readers around the globe.
Even all of these years later, I still feel the magic of Harry Potter’s world. While it’s a long-shot that I would be ever able to achieve J.K. Rowling’s level of success, I still carry the hope that one day someone could read something that I wrote and become inspired to write themselves. Beyond that, Rowling reminds me that no matter how difficult life becomes, I always have my passion for writing to grant me comfort and keep me moving forward.
Which authors have been particularly inspiring for your creativity?
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Rowling is a heroine of mine as well. I love how she took her own demons and personified them in her work. I still get chills reading her books.
Have you read any of her non-Harry Potter works? I just requested Very Good Lives (the book version of her Harvard commencement speech) from the library.