Which Harvard ceremony featured J.K. Rowling as the 2008 commencement speaker?

J.K. Rowling was the 2008 commencement speaker at Harvard University.

She delivered the commencement address at Harvard University on 5 June 2008. Her speech, titled “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” reflected on setbacks, poverty and the value of empathy. Harvard later published the address as a short book with the same title.

Rowling discussed her early post-university difficulties and the uncertainty she experienced before Harry Potter became successful. She argued that failure can strip away inessential assumptions and help people discover what they are capable of doing. She also described imagination as a way to understand people whose experiences differ from one’s own.

The event was a Harvard commencement, not a degree ceremony for Rowling. Harvard awarded her an honorary Doctor of Letters at the same event. The speech is often cited separately from her fiction because it presents her views on resilience and moral responsibility in her own public words.