Nebraska Authors

Rainbow Rowell is a journalist and author from Omaha, Nebraska. Rowell grew up in Omaha and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She began writing for the Omaha World Herald when she was just 23 and had her own column by the time she was 24. She left the journalism world twice in her career, the first time to write her first novel Attachments and the second time to continue pursuing a career in advertising, as well as write two more critically acclaimed novels, Eleanor & Park and Fangirl. Rowell is well known for her sense of humor and makes great use of familiar Nebraska settings in her novels. Both Attachments and Eleanor & Park take place in Omaha, while Fangirl unfolds almost entirely on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. Rowell's writing is heavily grounded in reality and her later novels especially draw on the harsh experiences of young adolescents. Eleanor & Park was once banned in a Minnesota library for its use of profanity, and Rowell's visit to said library cancelled as a result. Ironically, the book was banned during national Banned Books Week, with many authors and critics coming to Eleanor & Park's defense, saying it was a harsh but real account of some of the many struggles young adolescent boys and girls experience every day. Rowell is largely active in the writing community and one of the most widely recognized modern Nebraska authors.