JK Rowling Helps the Homeless

While in Germany to promote the German version of the last book in the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling has once again given special attention to Munich’s independent street magazine BISS. Rowling gave an interview to the magazine, which is sold by the city’s homeless, before last Saturday’s launch of her new book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

BISS was able to publish both snippets of Rowling news, and an account of the author’s trials over the past ten years of writing the Potter series, especially the last book:

“Particularly grueling was the day on which I wrote the 35th chapter, the one in which Harry prepares for his death. All the emotions that had stored up inside me after years of writing about Harry suddenly poured out,” she said.

Founded in 1993, BISS helps a small minority of homeless help themselves. Short for Burger in sozialen Schwierigkeiten (Citizens in Difficulty), homeless men and women with selling permits pocket a percentage of the magazine’s price, and receive support with debt repayments and with getting a foothold back into society.

Rowling herself was on social security, raising her daughter alone until her first success with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997. Four years ago, Rowling allowed BISS to publish the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before it hit the shops.

A substantial contributor to charities, mainly ones fighting poverty and social inequality, JK Rowling says, “I think you have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.”