The readers who have nicknamed her \u201cEmHen\u201d have probably read them all.<\/p>\n
Henry grew up in Ohio with childhood aspirations to be a writer. She attended Hope College in Michigan on a creative writing scholarship and soon after completed a writers residency at the New York Center for Art & Media Studies. She published her debut novel, a young-adult book, in 2016 and wrote three more YA books before switching to romance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was younger, I was very much a romantic,\u201d Henry told The Times. She gravitates to romance \u201cto get back to that place of hopefulness, and affirm the beauty and magic and meaningfulness of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry, now 34 and writing from her home in Cincinnati, affirms these values for her readers as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have continued to try to do the same kind of thing every time, which is write an authentic love story about two imperfect people,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n
For Henry, character is the most important thing. Intelligent and career-driven women serve as her protagonists and narrators. They all \u201chave something about themselves they are afraid of and aren\u2019t really able to accept,\u201d Henry said. She wants to help readers interrogate labels and fears they place on themselves, \u201cespecially as women, of not being the \u2018right kind\u2019 of woman.\u201d <\/p>\n
Henry has a strong sense of this amorphous feminine figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s good at her job, but her house is also really clean, and she\u2019s really naturally kind of stylish. Her apartment is beautifully decorated and she has cool, interesting clothes, but she\u2019s not trying hard. She\u2019s fit, but again, she likes to eat, and she\u2019s not working that hard to be fit, it\u2019s just kind of happening \u2026\u201d and the list of impossible standards continues.<\/p>\n
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Emily Henry lives and writes from her home in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
(Jared Wickerham \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
Coming from a proud romance writer the majority of whose readership is women, Henry\u2019s work rejects this entirely. To Henry, reading about flawless characters \u201cdoesn\u2019t necessarily connect with us on that deeper level. And then beyond that, I don\u2019t know that we even find it that attractive.\u201d Really loving someone means appreciating their idiosyncrasies, like \u201ctheir little 11 line or a little crooked tooth \u2014 these little imperfections that become so beautiful to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry\u2019s lead male love interests are usually rougher around the edges. Whether the romantic leads start out as rivals, exes or full-blown enemies, they find themselves deeply in love by the end. <\/p>\n
Henry\u2019s books have connected with millions of people \u2014 and her soon-to-be cinematic universe is bound to reach millions more.<\/p>\n
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