Emily Henry

Emily Henry is an American novelist who studied creative writing at Hope College and lives and writes in the American Midwest. She became a leading name in contemporary romance with Beach Read, followed by People We Meet on Vacation, Book Lovers, Happy Place, Funny Story and Great Big Beautiful Life. Her publisher identifies her as a number-one New York Times bestselling author.

Henry’s novels use familiar romantic setups while giving their characters substantial lives beyond courtship. Writers, editors and other bookish professionals recur in her work, as do grief, creative frustration and the uneasy gap between imagined happiness and adult reality. The comedy is often carried by quick dialogue, but the relationships develop through disappointment, vulnerability and changed expectations.

People We Meet on Vacation won the Goodreads Choice Award for Romance and was adapted as a Netflix film released in January 2026. Film versions of Beach Read, Book Lovers, Happy Place and Funny Story have also been announced as being in development.

Start with Beach Read. Romance novelist January Andrews and literary novelist Augustus Everett occupy neighboring houses on Lake Michigan while struggling to write. Their bargain to exchange genres sends them on very different research outings, from romantic field trips to interviews connected with a death cult. It is an especially apt introduction to Henry: funny about literary status, attentive to grief and family secrets, and built around two writers learning to reconsider both their work and each other.