Emily Fisk Giffin, a Chicago native, was born on March 20, 1972. She graduated summa cum laude from Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia School of Law. After law school, Giffin moved to Manhattan where she practiced litigation at a large firm for several years, paying back her school loans while writing a novel in her very limited spare time, and dreaming of becoming a writer. Despite the rejection of her first manuscript, she persisted, retiring from the legal profession and moving to London to pursue her dreams full time. It was there that she began writing Something Borrowed (2004), a story of a young woman who, upon turning thirty, finally learned to take a risk and follow her heart. A year later, Giffin’s gamble paid off, as she completed her manuscript, landed an agent, and signed a two-book deal on both sides of the Atlantic. Something Borrowed, hailed as a “heartbreakingly honest debut” with “dead-on dialogue, real-life complexity and genuine warmth,” became a surprise sensation, and Giffin vowed never to practice law again.

Dubbed a “modern day Jane Austen” by Vanity Fair and a “dependably down-to-earth storyteller” by The New York Times, Giffin has authored eleven more New York Times bestsellers, including Something Blue (2005), Baby Proof (2006), Love the One You’re With (2008), Heart of the Matter (2010), Where We Belong (2012), The One & Only (2014), First Comes Love (2016), All We Ever Wanted (2018), The Lies That Bind (2020), and Meant to Be (2022). Her novels, filled with endearingly flawed characters and emotional complexity, have resonated deeply with both critics and readers around the world, achieving bestseller status in several countries. The books have been translated into thirty-one languages, with over twelve million copies sold worldwide. Additionally, five of her novels have been optioned for the big screen, with Something Borrowed hitting theaters in May 2011, starring Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin, and John Krasinski.

Giffin now resides with her husband and three children in Atlanta. Her twelfth novel, Meant to Be, is set to be published on July 9, 2024.