Hollywood's 25 Most Powerful Authors

“They’re not all tough gals or bitches,” says Harris of her heroines, including telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse. “They’re a mixture of good and bad, strength and weakness. I try to write people who aren’t black and white.” Harris has sold more than 30 million books worldwide, with four titles topping The New York Times best-seller list, and her Stackhouse novels serve as the basis for the vampire series True Blood, HBO’s highest-rated show.

“Sookie’s a blue-collar heroine, and that resonates with people who are having economic troubles,” says the Mississippi native and mother of three grown children who lives in Arkansas with her husband. As she bids farewell to Sookie and her supernatural friends — the upcoming 13th book, Dead Ever After, will be the series’ last — Harris is readying her next project: her first graphic novel, Cemetery Girl, due in 2013.