J. K. Rowling

Serving as academic advisor for the CLR involves surveying ALL of the critical literature available on the author, selecting the 10-15 pieces that best represent the author’s critical significance, writing an annotated bibliography entry for each of those articles, and drafting the introduction that provides an overview of not only the author’s significance but also the critical discussion that has been published about the author from the time she began publishing until the present. Once the academic advisor completes her work, she sends it to the press and they use it as a guideline – and, indeed, a roadmap – of how to organize the entries and how to write the introduction. These volumes are extremely time- and labor-intensive, but since the academic advisors are chosen based on their position as being one of the leading scholars on that particular author, accepting the invitation to serve is somewhat of an academic obligation. That said, it is exciting to help shape the way that a selection of criticism is read for other scholars.