J.K. Rowling commencement speech to be issued as book

A new book from J.K. Rowling will offer no magic — only words of wisdom.

Publisher Little, Brown and Company announced on December 2 that Rowling’s 2008 Harvard University commencement speech will be released in April as the book Very Good Lives. Proceeds will be donated to Lumos, a charity for disadvantaged children that Rowling founded, and to a financial aid programme at Harvard.

In her speech, the Harry Potter author spoke of her early struggles as a writer and the importance of failure as a “stripping away of the inessential.”