One of the most beloved stories in history, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series topped the best-seller charts, inspired the highest-grossing film series of all time, and has now become a $250 million Universal Studio theme park. What is it about this story that has ignited such fandom and struck such a chord with people around the world? As English professor, culture critic, and Potter devotee Greg Garrett explains, these novels not only entertain but teach deeply held truths about ourselves, others, and the world around us. Unlocking the textual intricacies behind the Harry Potter narrative, Garrett reveals Rowling's magical formula one that, he contends, earns her a place right next to the literary giants of old.
Greg Garrett is a novelist, memoirist, and theologian and cultural critic who has written over a dozen critically-acclaimed books and published forty short stories in the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. His debut novel Free Bird was chosen by Publishers' Weekly and the Denver Rocky Mountain News as one of the top fiction debuts of 2002, and many have been moved by his autobiographical writing on depression and faith, Crossing Myself and No Idea, but he is probably best known for his books on religion, politics, and culture. His newest book is Faithful Citizenship, a work examining why the political process is so badly broken--and how to make theological decisions. You may have heard (or read) him talking about religion, politics, and culture in the media. His work has been covered by The New Yorker, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, BBC Radio, BBC Scotland, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, msnbc.com, The Bob Edwards Show, The National Review, Commonweal, and many other broadcast, print, and web venues.
Greg writes regularly for Patheos (http://patheos.com), THe Huffington Post, and for print and web publications ranging from The Washington Post to Poets & Writers. He is currently doing thinking, research, and writing for a novel with best-selling author Brennan Manning, and a book for Oxford University Press on the afterlife in literature and culture. Greg is an award-winning Professor of English at Baylor University, Writer in Residence at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, Residential Scholar at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Wales, and a licensed lay preacher based at St. David's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas.
Greg lives in Austin, Texas with his family. His heroes include Martin Luther King, Barbara Jordan, Henry David Thoreau, Robert F. Kennedy, Desmond Tutu, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. His favorite authors include PD James, Walker Percy, Graham Greene, Nick Hornby, Barbara Brown Taylor (are you really still reading this?), Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Merton, Rowan Williams, and Anne Lamott. His favorite color is blue (No, yellow!), his favorite guitar is a Taylor GS-7 acoustic, and he prefers both green and red chile (Christmas!) on his blue corn enchiladas.
