Patrick Rothfuss

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-06

Patrick James Rothfuss was born on June 6, 1973, in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in DeForest, Wisconsin. He earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in 1999, where he also wrote for the campus newspaper, and later completed a master's degree in English from Washington State University in 2002. Before his career as a novelist, Rothfuss taught part-time at Stevens Point while working on the manuscript that would become The Name of the Wind. In 2002 he won the Writers of the Future contest, and in 2006 he sold his debut novel to DAW Books. The Name of the Wind, the first volume of The Kingkiller Chronicle, was published in 2007 and won the Quill Award; its sequel, The Wise Man's Fear (2011), reached number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction list. Rothfuss also founded Worldbuilders, a charitable organization that has raised more than $11.5 million for Heifer International.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Name of the Wind (2007) · The Kingkiller Chronicle Core Canon
• The Wise Man's Fear (2011) · The Kingkiller Chronicle Core Canon
• How Old Holly Came to Be (2013) · The Kingkiller Chronicle Expanded Canon
• The Lightning Tree (2014) · The Kingkiller Chronicle Expanded Canon
• The Slow Regard of Silent Things (2014) · The Kingkiller Chronicle Expanded Canon
• The Narrow Road Between Desires (2023) · The Kingkiller Chronicle Expanded Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 2 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 3 (3 won)

← All authors