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Pat Rothfuss with a few of the editorial copies he's
accumulated in the last six months of editing.
About the Author
Patrick Rothfuss was born in Madison, Wisconsin to awesome parents who encouraged him to
read and create through reading to him, gentle boosts of self-esteem, and deprivation of
cable television. During his formative years, he read extensively and wrote terrible
short stories and poetry to teach himself what not to do.
Patrick matriculated at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, initially studying
chemical engineering which led to a revelation that chemical engineering is boring. He
then spent the next nine years jumping from major to major, taking semesters off, enjoying
semesters at part-time, and generally rocking the college student experience before being
kindly asked to graduate already. Surprisingly enough, he had enough credits to
graduate with an English major, and he did so grudgingly.
Patrick then went to grad school. He’d rather not talk about it.
All this time Patrick was working on “The Book,” as he and his friends lovingly
titled it. When he returned to Stevens Point he began teaching half-time while trying
to sell The Book to publishers. In the process, he disguised a chapter of The Book as
a short story and won the Writers of the Future competition in 2002. This put him into
contact with all the right people, and after deciding to split The Book into three
installments, DAW agreed to publish it. In March 2007, The Name of the Wind
was published to great acclaim, winning the Quill Award and making the New York Times
Bestseller list.
All this success was wonderful. Patrick eventually had to stop teaching in order to
focus on writing, though he screwed that up by having an adorable baby with his adorable
girlfriend. He started a charity fundraiser called Worldbuilders and published a
not-for-children children’s book called The Adventures of the Princess and Mr.
Whiffle in July of 2010 through Subterranean Press, which was adorable, and seriously
isn’t for children.
After a great deal of work and a few cleared throats and raised eyebrows from his patient
editor, Wise Man’s Fear came out in March 2011 to even more acclaim,
making #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Life continues to rock for him, and
he’s working hard on writing the final installment of the series.
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