Nick Hornby is an award-winning author and Oscar®-nominated screenwriter whose stories explore human connection with a catchy blend of snappily observed humor and unsentimental emotion. His books, which have sold over 5 million copies, include the bestselling novels High Fidelity, About A Boy, How to Be Good, Juliet Naked, and 2020’s Just Like You. 

His latest nonfiction book, Rosamund Lehman in Vegas, is an anthology of his columns for The Believer. Touching on subjects as disparate as cattle drives, chess prodigies, and Arsenal’s 1976 thrashing of West Ham, Hornby offers surprising insights and proves himself, once again, as one of our greatest living cultural critics. Cash Out, a novel about soccer, love, and not selling yourself short, will be published in 2027.

Other notable nonfiction titles include Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius, 31 Songs, The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, Stuff I’ve Been Reading, and his breakout book, Fever Pitch. Hornby’s memoir about life as a maniacal Arsenal fan was adapted for the screen twice, including a remake by the Farrelly brothers for an American audience, transporting the action to the baseball diamond and starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon.

Hornby’s bestselling novels have also served as inspiration for filmmakers in movies known for their keenly observed, emotional honesty. Cult-classic High Fidelity was first adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears, starring John Cusack and Jack Black, and in 2020 was re-imagined as a Hulu streaming series starring Zoe Kravitz. About A Boy was directed by the Weitz brothers, starring Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz and Toni Collette.

A masterful screenwriter himself, Hornby’s screenplay credits includes the adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn, which was directed by John Crowley and starred Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Julie Walters, and Jim Broadbent. Praised as a top film of 2015, it received three Oscar nominations, landing Hornby a Best Adapted Screenplay nod, and was awarded BAFTA’s Outstanding British Film. Hornby also received Oscar and BAFTA nominations for his adaption of Lynn Barber’s memoir An Education, a “nostalgically elegant, comically restrained, cleverly scripted film” (The Spectator), which was directed by Lone Scherfig and starred Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, and Emma Thompson. Other notable adaptations include Wild, an adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s New York Times bestselling memoir starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern; his own memoir for the original screenplay of Fever Pitch starring Colin Firth; and a BBC1 television series adaptation of Nina Stibbe’s memoir Love, Nina. Hornby is also the creator and writer of  the short form series State of the Union on Sundance TV. He won an Emmy for the first season, which was directed by Stephen Frears and starred Rosamund Pyke and Chris O’Dowd. The second season starred Brendan Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson, who won an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series.

In 2010, Hornby co-founded the children’s writing charity The Ministry of Stories, originally located in East London and now expanding to other UK cities. Modeled on literary nonprofits like Dave Eggers’s 826 Valencia, the organization works with schools and the local community to offer mentoring and writing labs. The Ministry, which strives to “help young people discover their confidence, imagination and potential through the power of their writing” has been shown to positively impact young writers’ confidence, engagement, self-respect, and ability to learn new skills through and innovative storytelling and writing workshops.

Hornby was awarded the E. M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. He lives in London.

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