Emily Henry was born on May 17, 1991. She is an American author who is best known for writing romance novels in the 2020s. Her books include Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation, Book Lovers, Happy Place, Funny Story, and Great Big Beautiful Life. All of these books have been listed as New York Times bestsellers.
Biography
Henry was born on May 17, 1991. She went to Lakota East High School in Liberty Township, Ohio. After high school, she attended Hope College with a scholarship for creative writing and planned to study dance. She also completed a writing program at the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, which was part of Bethel University. After finishing college, she returned to Cincinnati. She currently lives and writes in Cincinnati and the Ohio River region of Northern Kentucky. As of 2016, she worked full-time as a writer and proofreader.
Writing career
Emily Henry's first young adult book, The Love That Split the World, was published in January 2016. After writing several young adult novels, her first adult romance novel, Beach Read, was published in 2020 and became very popular. Her books have been featured in BuzzFeed, O, The Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, The Skimm, and Shondaland.
Emily continued writing adult romance novels. In 2021, People We Meet on Vacation was published. Book Lovers came out in 2022, and Happy Place was published in 2023. Funny Story was released in April 2024. Her sixth adult romance book, Great Big Beautiful Life, was published on April 22, 2025.
As of March 2023, Emily had sold more than 2.4 million books in total.
In 2023, Allison P. Davis wrote in Vulture that Emily's books include elements of the romantic comedy and chick lit genres and focus on themes such as "respect" and love.
The first five of Emily's adult romance books have been planned to be made into movies or TV shows.
In October 2022, a movie version of People We Meet on Vacation was announced by Sony's 3000 Pictures. The screenplay was written by Yulin Kuang, and Brett Haley would direct the film with Temple Hill producing it. In September 2024, it was announced that Tom Blyth and Emily Bader would play the main characters, Alex and Poppy. The movie was released on January 9, 2026. In April 2023, Kuang was also announced to write and direct a film version of Beach Read for 20th Century.
On March 28, 2023, a movie version of Book Lovers was announced by the production company Tango, with Sarah Heyward writing the screenplay. Jennifer Lopez's production company, Nuyorican Productions, plans to turn Happy Place into a Netflix TV series.
Emily plans to write the screenplay for a movie version of Funny Story herself.
Characters
The book "Beach Read" was written by January Andrews and Augustus Everett. The book "People We Meet on Vacation" was written by Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen. The book "Book Lovers" was written by Nora Stephens and Charlie Lastra. The book "Happy Place" was written by Harriet Kilpatrick and Wyn Connor. The book "Funny Story" was written by Daphne Vincent and Miles Nowak. The book "Great Big Beautiful Life" was written by Alice Scott and Hayden Anderson.
Awards
- 2021 Winner: Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Romance: People We Meet on Vacation
- 2022 Winner: Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Romance: Book Lovers
- 2023 Winner: Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Romance: Happy Place
- 2024 Winner: Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Romance: Funny Story
- 2024 Winner: Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Audiobook: Funny Story
- 2025 Libby Book Award: Romance: Funny Story
- 2025 Winner: Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Romance: Great Big Beautiful Life