Charlaine Harris Schulz (born November 25, 1951) is an American author who specializes in mysteries. She is best known for her book series '' The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', which was adapted as the TV series '' True Blood''. The television show was a critical and financial success for HBO, running seven seasons, from 2008 through 2014. Harris was born and raised in a small town in the Mississippi River Delta area of the United States. She lives in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

with her husband; they have three children. She began writing from an early age, and changed from playwriting in college to writing and publishing mysteries, including several long series featuring recurring characters.

Life and career

Harris was born and grew up in Tunica, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta. In her early work she wrote poems about ghosts and teenage angst. She began writing plays while attending Rhodes College in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. Her most recent mysteries have been in the

urban fantasy Urban fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy, placing supernatural elements in a contemporary urban area, urban-affected setting. The combination provides the writer with a platform for classic fantasy tropes, quixotic plot-elements, and unusual charac ...

genre. After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris began the lighthearted ''

Aurora Teagarden Aurora Teagarden is a fictional character created by author Charlaine Harris. She is the protagonist of a series of eleven crime novels written from 1990 to 2017. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries began adapting the novels in 2014 for their original ...

'' books with ''Real Murders'', nominated as a Best Novel 1990 for the

Agatha Award The Agatha Awards, named for Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short ...

s. Harris wrote several books in the series before the mid-1990s, when she began branching out into other works.

Deborah Solomon Deborah Solomon (born August 9, 1957) is an American art critic, journalist and biographer. She writes for ''The New York Times'', where she was previously a columnist. Her weekly column, "Questions For" ran in ''The New York Times Magazine'' fr ...

, "Questions for Charlene Harris: Once Bitten: The writer talks about her 10th vampire novel and the hit TV series it inspired," ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...

'', May 2, 2010, p. 18. She did not resume the series until 1999, with the exception of one short story in a ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...

'' anthology titled "Murder, They Wrote". In 1996, Harris published the first in the ''Shakespeare'' series, featuring cleaning lady detective Lily Bard, set in rural

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. At the time, a ''New York Times'' interview with Harris noted that she "live in small-town Arkansas". The fifth book in the series, ''Shakespeare's Counselor'', was published in fall 2001, followed by the short story "Dead Giveaway", published in the '' Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine'' in December 2001. Harris has said she is finished with that series. Next Harris created '' The Southern Vampire Mysteries'' series, about a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse who works in a Northern Louisiana bar. The first book, ''Dead Until Dark'', won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each book follows Sookie as she tries to solve mysteries involving

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

werewolves In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either purposely or after bei ...

, and other supernatural creatures. The series has been published in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Harris wrote thirteen novels in the series; the last, ''Dead Ever After'', was published in May 2013. A supplemental book, ''After Dead'', was published in October 2013. The second novel, '' Living Dead in Dallas'', won the 2003 Lord Ruthven Award for Fiction, and the anthology ''The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories'' won the 2018 Ruthven Award for Fiction. October 2005 marked the debut of Harris's new series, entitled Harper Connelly Mysteries, with the release of '' Grave Sight''. The series is told by a young woman named Harper Connelly, who after being struck by lightning, is able to locate dead bodies and to see their last moments through the eyes of the deceased. In October 2010, it was announced Harper Connelly's series had been optioned for a television series named ''Grave Sight''. The year 2014 marked the debut of the Cemetery Girl series, a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

series co-written with

Christopher Golden Christopher Golden (born July 15, 1967) is an American writer. Early life Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. He graduated from Tufts University. Career As well as novels, Golden has written com ...

and illustrated by Don Kramer. Harris is a member of the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the E ...

and the American Crime Writers League, as well as a member of the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternated with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance until Hess' death in 2017.

Personal life

Harris has long been married. She and her husband have three grown children and two grandchildren. She is a former weightlifter and

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

student, she is also an avid reader and cinemaphile. Harris formerly resided in Magnolia, Arkansas, where she was the senior warden of St. James Episcopal Church, and as of 2017 lives in Texas.

Bibliography

Aurora Teagarden Aurora Teagarden is a fictional character created by author Charlaine Harris. She is the protagonist of a series of eleven crime novels written from 1990 to 2017. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries began adapting the novels in 2014 for their original ...
series (1990–present)

# ''Real Murders'' (1990) # ''A Bone to Pick'' (1992) # ''Three Bedrooms, One Corpse'' (1994) # ''The Julius House'' (1995) # ''Dead Over Heels'' (1996) # "Deeply Dead" in ''Murder, They Wrote'' # ''A Fool and His Honey'' (1999) # ''Last Scene Alive'' (2002) # ''Poppy Done to Death'' (2003) # ''All the Little Liars'' (2016) # ''Sleep Like a Baby'' (2017)

Lily Bard (Shakespeare) series (1996–2001)

# ''Shakespeare's Landlord'' (1996) # ''Shakespeare's Champion'' (1997) # ''Shakespeare's Christmas'' (1998) # ''Shakespeare's Trollop'' (2000) # ''Shakespeare's Counselor'' (2001) 0-312-27762-8 :5.1. "Dead Giveaway" published in '' Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine'' (December 2001)

Sookie Stackhouse series (2001–2014)

For more detailed information see The Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood.

Harper Connelly series (2005–2009)

# '' Grave Sight'' (2005) # ''Grave Surprise'' (2006) # ''An Ice Cold Grave'' (2007) # ''Grave Secret'' (2009) ;

Graphic novels

# ''Grave Sight Part 1'' (June 2011) # ''Grave Sight Part 2'' (November 2011) # ''Grave Sight Part 3'' (March 2012)

Cemetery Girl series (with Christopher Golden)

# ''Book One: The Pretenders'' (2014) . # Book Two: ''Inheritance'' (2015) # Book Three: ''Haunted'' (2018)

Midnight, Texas Trilogy (2014–2016)

# ''Midnight Crossroad'' (May 2014) # ''Day Shift'' (May 2015) # ''Night Shift'' (May 2016)

Gunnie Rose series

# ''An Easy Death'' (2018) # ''A Longer Fall'' (2020) # ''The Russian Cage'' (2021) # ''The Serpent in Heaven'' (2022) # ''All the Dead Shall Weep'' (2023)

Stand-alones

* ''Sweet and Deadly'' (1981) . Republished in the UK as ''Dead Dog'' * ''A Secret Rage'' (1984) * ''Layla Steps Up'' (2010) * ''A Taste of True Blood'' (2010) * ''Indigo'' (2017)

Anthologies and collections

As editor

* ''Many Bloody Returns'' (September 2007; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner) * ''Wolfsbane and Mistletoe'' (October 2008; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner) * ''Crimes by Moonlight'' (April 2010) * ''Death's Excellent Vacation'' (August 2010; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner) * ''Home Improvement: Undead Edition'' (August 2011; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner) * ''An Apple for the Creature'' (September 2012; co-editor with Toni LP Kelner)

Adaptations

Television

Her series of novels '' The Southern Vampire Mysteries'' was adapted into the show '' True Blood''. The series lasted seven seasons and totaled 80 episodes. It was nominated for dozens of awards. ''True Blood'' aired on HBO. The show was also the most viewed show on HBO since ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...

.'' In 2014, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries began adapting Harris' Aurora Teagarden novels into a series of television films, starring

Candace Cameron Bure Candace Helaine Cameron Bure (; Cameron; born April 6, 1976) is an American actress and talk show panelist. She is known for portraying D.J. Tanner on ''Full House'' and its sequel series ''Fuller House (TV series), Fuller House'', and a number ...

. Harris's series '' Midnight, Texas'' was developed as a TV series by NBC and began airing on their network in 2017.

Video games

*Dying for Daylight (February 2011) ** The first all new

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

written by Charlaine Harris, released by iPlay Games; starring Dahlia **Based on Book 10: ''Dead in the Family'' *Shakespeare's Landlord ''- an interactive game'' (January 2018) **Video game adapted from Charlaine Harris' novel of the same name, developed b
One More Story Games
ref> **Based on Book 1: ''Shakespeare's Landlord''

References

External links

*
Fantastic Fiction Author Page
*
Charlaine Harris Collection (MUM00221)
owned by the University of Mississippi Department of Archives and Special Collections

"Story Behind Cemetery Girl"—Online essay by Charlaine Harris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Charlaine 1951 births 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American Episcopalians American horror writers American mystery writers American women novelists Anthony Award winners Cozy mystery writers Living people Novelists from Mississippi People from Magnolia, Arkansas People from Tunica, Mississippi Writers from Texas Rhodes College alumni Urban fantasy writers Writers from Arkansas American women science fiction and fantasy writers American women horror writers American women mystery writers Inkpot Award winners