Owen King

Owen Philip King (born February 21, 1977) is an American author of novels and graphic novels, and a television film producer. He published his first book, We're All in This Together, in 2005 to generally positive reviews, but his first full-length novel, Double Feature, had a less enthusiastic reception. King collaborated with his father, writer Stephen King, in the writing of the novel Sleeping Beauties.

Early life

King was born in 1977 in Maine to parents Tabitha and Stephen King. He has two older siblings, Naomi King and Joseph Hillström King. He was raised in Bangor, Maine, showing an interest in writing during high school. King attended Vassar College and Columbia University, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Career King published his first book, We're All in This Together, a collection of three short stories and a novella, in 2005. His short fiction has been published in various journals, such as One Story and Prairie Schooner. His debut novel, Double Feature, was published in 2013.

Sleeping Beauties, a writing collaboration between Owen King and his father, Stephen King, was published in September 2017 and is set in a women's prison in West Virginia. King is working with filmmaker Josh Boone on adapting the Clive Barker novel The Great and Secret Show for television.

In 2020, he co-wrote and produced the CBS All Access Mini-series adaption of his father's novel The Stand.

In 2023, Scribner published The Curator, King's second solo novel.

In June 2024, Syzygy Publishing, an imprint of Image Comics, began publishing the first five issues of Self Help, a serial comic book co-written by Owen King and Jesse Kellerman. A graphic novel collecting issues 1-5 was published by Simon & Schuster in February 2025.

Initial reception of works The reception for King's collection We're All in This Together was positive, with both the Los Angeles Times and Independent giving it positive reviews.

King's first full-length novel, Double Feature, was called "overwritten" in a review in The New York Times.

King's graphic novel Intro to Alien Invasion reception was mixed, with Publishers Weekly opining that the comic was unable to consistently transcend its "B movie source material," while Booklist called the spoofing of B-list material "highly successful".

In the New York Times, Dexter Palmer's review of The Curator concluded, "This novel is richly imagined, its surface pleasures deliberately subverted by the bleak suggestion at its core: that a successful organized attempt to reduce inequity will have to overcome not just the inertia of a nation’s politics, but human nature."

Personal life King is married to writer Kelly Braffet (born 1976) and lives in New Paltz, New York.

Awards John Gardner Award