Photo: CHANDRA WICKE PHOTOGRAPHY

“Katherine Center is one of the greats.”

JOSIE

“Every KC novel makes me believe in kindness again.”

BRENNA

“Katherine Center has cracked the rom-com code.”

STEPHANIE

“Time after time, she hits it out of the park.”

LINDSAY

“Katherine Center is writing stories that women want to read—while helping us heal parts of ourselves we didn’t know how to heal.”

CHEYENNE

New York timesBestselling Author Katherine Center wrote her first novel in the sixth grade (fan fiction about Duran Duran) and got hooked. From then on, she was doomed to want to be a writer—obsessively working on poems, essays, and stories, as well as memorizing lyrics, keeping countless journals, and reading constantly.

She won a creative writing scholarship in high school, and then went on to major in creative writing at Vassar College, where she won the Vassar College Fiction Prize. At 22, she won a fellowship to the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program and moved home to Texas with plans to become Jane Austen ASAP.

Didn’t happen quite that way. Of course. Instead, she began a decade of struggling, agonizing, and questioning the meaning of life before finally finding a fairy-godmother-like agent and getting a dream-come-true book deal for her debut novel, The Bright Side of Disaster.

A total happy ending. And also, just the beginning.

Katherine firmly believes that our struggles lead us to our strengths, and the years of not getting published, she’s decided, were good for her. They forced her to define who she is and what she cares about. They forced her to figure out why she writes at all. They forced her to clarify for herself what she loves in stories as a reader—to create her own definitition of “good writing” from the inside out.

Katherine is constantly thinking about craft, and looking for stories to admire, and working to get better at storytelling—but she’s very careful about what “better” means. For her, getting better as a writer means getting clearer and clearer about what she, herself, loves and looks for in stories—and using everything she knows about writing to do those things in the spirit of service for others.

Katherine believes the single most inspiring thing about the human race is the way life knocks us down over and over and over, but we just keep on getting back up.

She believes the best stories let you get so lost, you forget you’re reading at all—and then you find your way back out a little bit changed.

Katherine also believes joy is just as important as sorrow.

That’s why her stories are always about resilience and struggle and finding ways to savor life’s moments of grace. That’s why her characters joke around so much, even in the shadow of hardship. And that’s why Katherine will never, ever, run the main character over with a bus in the final chapter.

That’s a promise.

Katherine is always looking for reasons to be hopeful, and opportunities to laugh, and ways of getting inspired—both in real life and in fiction. She believes that the only compass you can follow as a writer is to write the story you, yourself, long to read.

“Katherine Center’s books are magic. I don’t know what fairy dust she sprinkles into her sentences, but these books always fill me with joy.”

DANI

FUN FACTS ABOUT KATHERINE

• She almost went to art school, instead.

• She designed this website.

• Her maternal grandmother was an identical twin.

• She had her first kiss on a Greek island. Or—depending on how you define “first kiss”—possibly out by the trash cans behind her middle school gym.

• She memorized Lewis Carroll’s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter in third grade and still remembers it.

• She memorized Billy Collins’ poem Forgetfuness in graduate school and has already forgotten it.

• She decided to go to Vassar College for two reasons: (1) there was no math requirement, and (2) Meryl Streep went there.

• She went on a hiking trip very similar to the one in Happiness for Beginners when she was in college.

• She went to the same high school as Wes Anderson and was a freshman when he was a senior. His movie Rushmore was filmed at that same school.

• She was on the drum corps in high school and still knows all the beats.

• She totally idolizes her fabulous mother.

• She wonders if she might have been a sign painter in another life. Or a book-maker. Or a USO singer.

• Her beloved uncle Herman owned a charming “used, rare, out-of-print” bookstore when she was growing up called The Detering Book Gallery. The store was in a historic house with leather wingback chairs, and it was a Houston institution for 30 years. Michael Jackson came into the store one time. Legendary author Larry McMurtry also came in one day—when Katherine was working there—and she rang up his stack of books (but was too shy to ask for his autograph).

• Katherine is a fifth-generation Texan, and The Bodyguard is set on her family’s working cattle ranch outside of Houston.

• Back in college, she once had dinner with Stephen King and John Irving at the same time (with her senior creative writing class).

• Back in her twenties, she almost moved to LA to become a screen/TV writer.

• She’s one-quarter German, but she’s never been to Germany.

• She based the goat farm in The Lost Husband on her friends Christian and Lisa Seger’s place, Blue Heron Farm.

• She is the middle of three sisters and is a classic middle child.

• The only crafty thing she’s truly bad at is knitting.

• Her mother-in-law is Canadian.

• Her favorite hobby is cracking jokes with her husband.

• Her favorite font is Rockwell.

• Her favorite movie of all time is When Harry Met Sally.

• Her favorite fruit is fresh figs. But she’s allergic to them.

• She is a mediocre cook, honestly. But she keeps trying. And she makes fantastic canned biscuit doughnuts.

• She never finished memorizing her multiplication tables.

• Her grandmother once danced with Clark Gable—in the arms of the man himself—in a live stage production in Texas.

• While researching face blindness for her novel Hello Stranger, she scored high enough on face-recognition tests that it turns out she could work for the police identifying suspects.

• Her favorite flower is peonies. Kind of just exactly like Emma in The Rom-Commers.

• She is a dog person. But could switch to cat person in a pinch. Also loves Peruvian long-haired Guinea pigs.

“Katherine Center books are honestly so good for my mental health.”

BRIGID

“Is Katherine putting crack in these books?”

ANNABELLE

“I am in love with Katherine Center’s universe.”

AJ

“Katherine Center’s writing is like a warm hug you didn’t know you needed.”

NIKKI

Official current author photo!

PHOTO CREDIT: Chandra Wicke Photography

Short author BIO (great for introductions)!

BookPage calls KATHERINE CENTER “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including The Bodyguard, The Rom-Commers, and The Love Haters, among others. Katherine writes deep, nuanced, laugh-and-cry rom-coms that brim with hope and healing. The movie adaptations of her novels Happiness for Beginners and The Lost Husband have both hit the global top ten on Netflix. Her books have made countless best-of lists, including Amazon’s Top 100 Books of the Year, Barnes & Noble’s best books of the year, the Indie Next Great Reads List, Goodreads’ Best Books of the Year, Library Reads Hall of Fame, People Best New Books, and more. Her spring 2026 book is The Shippers—and People says “Katherine Center’s The Shippers is the wedding romance you need.” Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband and their fluffy-but-fierce dog. Join her mailing list at KatherineCenter.com!

**“She has a way of making you feel the falling in love feelings so powerfully, and she has such a special way of telling meaningful stories in the process.”**

LAUREL

(Photo credit: Skylar Reeves Photography)

(Slightly longer) BIO:

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads,” and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult says, “Katherine Center is the balm we need in the world right now.”

Katherine is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including The Bodyguard, Things You Save in a Fire, THE ROM-COMMERS, and her newest, The Love Haters—and many others. . Her May 2026 book is The Shippers.

Katherine’s 2015 novel, Happiness for Beginners, is now a Netflix original movie (starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes) that hit the Netflix’s Global Top 10 in 81 countries around the world. The movie adaptation of her novel The Lost Husband (starring Josh Duhamel) hit #1 on Netflix and made their Top 25 movies of 2020.

Katherine is a passionate advocate for the cultural value of love stories. She writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down and how we get back up—deep rom-coms full of wisdom that are half struggle and growth, and half love story. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.”

Emily Henry calls The Bodyguard “my perfect 10 of a book.” Brené Brown says “Katherine Center writes about falling down, growing up, and finding love like nobody else.” Jodi Picoult says, “Katherine Center is the balm we need in the world right now.”

Katherine’s work has been translated all over the world—and has made countless Best-Of lists, including the Barnes & Noble’s best books of the year, the Indie Next Great Reads List, Amazon’s Top 100 Books of the Year, Goodreads’ Best Books of the Year, Library Reads Hall of Fame, People Best New Books, and more.

Katherine holds degrees from Vassar College and the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. She has two mostly-grown kids, and she lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her good-hearted husband and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.

For more about Katherine, click HERE!

A few fun—and random—writerly photos!

Lots of lovely readers in these photos—but also many great authors, including: Emily Henry, Kristin Hannah, Tessa Dare, Jodi Picoult, Emily Giffin, Mary Kay Andrews, and Brené Brown. Also included! Great Day Houston host Deborah Duncan, and screenwriter/director (of 2 KC movies) Vicky Wight.