JK ROWLING’S SPEECH IS NOW A BOOK
Aspeech that author JK Rowling gave to a graduating class at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, on April 14 last year will now be immortalised in print. With this move, Rowling joins a list of authors that includes names like David Foster Wallace and George Saunders, all of whose commencement speeches have been turned into books. Rowling’s speech, titled Very Good Lives, will be an 80-page book, said to be relevant to those at a turning point in their lives. It will talk about embracing failure, and draws from the author’s own post-graduate years.
Here are a few other famous authors whose speeches have been turned into books:
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE:
THIS IS WATER
Wallace’s 2005 speech at Kenyon College, Ohio, USA, has been reprinted and shared far and wide. The late author’s speech begins with an oft-quoted fish parable, which was later published in 2009.
GEORGE SAUNDERS: CONGRATULATIONS, BY THE WAY: SOME THOUGHTS ON KINDNESS
The author spoke to the graduating class at Syracuse University, New York, USA, in 2013. His message was to be “more kind”. After being reprinted on a New York Times blog, the speech was turned into a book in 2014.
NEIL GAIMAN: MAKE GOOD ART
The author of American Gods, and comic book series, The Sandman, Gaiman gave a now-famous 2012 commencement speech at The University Of The Arts in Philadelphia, USA, in which “make good art” was his basic commandment. It was published in 2013.
KURT VONNEGUT: IF THIS ISN’T NICE, WHAT IS? ADVICE TO THE YOUNG
Nine of the late US author’s graduation speeches are compiled in a volume called If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? Incidentally the speech most famously attributed to him, Wear Sunscreen, is actually from a Chicago Tribune column by author Mary Schmich.