Joanne Rowling, known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She has won numerous accolades for her Harry Potter book series, including general literature prizes, honours in children's literature and speculative fiction awards. The series has garnered multiple British Book Awards, beginning with the Children's Book of the Year in 1997 and 1998 for the first two volumes, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In 2000 the third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was nominated for an adult award – the Whitbread Book of the Year – where it competed against a book by a Nobel Prize laureate (Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. The award body gave Rowling the children's prize instead (worth half the cash amount); some scholars view this as exposing a literary prejudice against children's books. Next followed the World Science Fiction Convention's 2001 Hugo Award for the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the British Book Awards' adult prize – the 2006 Book of the Year – for the sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Rowling's early career awards include the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to children's literature in 2000, and three years later, the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. She won the British Book Awards' Author of the Year and Outstanding Achievement prizes over the span of the Harry Potter series. Following the series' completion, Time named Rowling a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, citing the social, moral and political inspiration she gave the Harry Potter fandom. Two years later, she was recognised as a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy; leading magazine editors then named her the "Most Influential Woman in the UK" the following October. Later awards include the Freedom of the City of London in 2012 and for her services to literature and philanthropy, the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2017. In 2024 Rowling stated that she had been offered a life peerage by both Labour and Conservative governments, but had declined both. She has also confirmed that she declined a damehood.
Academic bodies have bestowed multiple honours on Rowling. She has received honorary degrees from the University of Aberdeen; the University of St Andrews; Dartmouth College; the University of Edinburgh; Edinburgh Napier University; the University of Exeter (which she attended) and Harvard University. Rowling spoke at Harvard's 2008 commencement ceremony; the same year, she also won University College Dublin's James Joyce Award. Her other honours include fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (HonFRSE) and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCPE).
Rowling's awards for film, theatre and crime fiction include the 2011 British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema for the Harry Potter film series, the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and the 2021 British Book Awards' Crime and Thriller category for the fifth volume of her Cormoran Strike series.
Literature General literature + Award Year Category Work Result British Book Awards 1997 Children's Book of the Year 1998 Children's Book of the Year 1999 Author of the Year 2000 Children's Book of the Year 2004 Book of the Year 2006 Book of the Year 2008 Outstanding Achievement 2009 Children's Book of the Year 2017 Children's Book of the Year 2020 30 From 30 2021 Crime and Thriller Carnegie Medal 1997 Carnegie Medal 1999 Carnegie Medal Nestlé Smarties Book Prize 1997 Gold Medal 1998 Gold Medal 1999 Gold Medal Scottish Arts Council Award 1998 Children's Book of the Year Whitbread Book Awards 1999 Children's Book of the Year 2000 Book of the Year Children's Book of the Year
Speculative fiction + Award Year Category Work Result Bram Stoker Award 2000 Work for Young Readers 2001 Work for Young Readers 2004 Work for Young Readers Hugo Award 2000 Novel 2001 Novel Locus Award 1999 First Novel 2000 Fantasy Novel 2019 Art Book Mythopoeic Award 1999 Children's Literature 2000 Children's Literature 2008 Children's Literature Nebula Award 2008 Andre Norton Award Prometheus Award 2004 Best Novel
Crime fiction + Award Year Work Result Gold Dagger 2015 2021 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2021 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2016
Film and theatre + Award Year Category Work Result British Academy Film Awards 2010 Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Harry Potter film series British Academy Children's Awards 2011 Feature Film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Laurence Olivier Awards 2017 Best New Play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Tony Awards 2018 Best Play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Career awards State + Year Country Honour Citation 2000 UK Order of the British Empire (OBE) Services to children's literature 2003 Spain Prince of Asturias Award for Concord Children's literature 2008 UK Edinburgh Award Contributions to Edinburgh 2009 France Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 2012 UK Freedom of the City of London Services to children's literature 2017 UK Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) Services to literature and philanthropy
Academic
+ Year Institution Honour 2000 Honorary degree Honorary degree Honorary degree Honorary degree 2002 Fellowship (HonFRSE) Fellowship (FRSL)2004 Honorary degree 2006 Honorary degree 2008 Honorary degree James Joyce Award 2017 Fellowship (FRCPE)
Popular culture + Year Awarded by Title Result 1999 Woman of the Year 2007 Person of the Year Most Fascinating Person of the Year 2010 Most Influential Woman in the UK 2019 Woman of the Year (1998)
Miscellaneous + Year Organisation Award 2007 Blue Peter Gold Blue Peter badge 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Literature Committee Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award 2016 PEN America PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award 2018 Museum of Pop Culture Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame 2019 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award (returned in 2020)
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