He is best known for his highly acclaimed series The Kingkiller Chronicle, beginning with Rothfuss' debut novel, The Name of the Wind (2007), which won several awards, and continuing in the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear (2011), which topped The New York Times Best Seller list.

Patrick Rothfuss was born in Madison, Wisconsin, graduated from DeForest Area High School, and received his BA in English from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in 1999.

[5][better source needed] He won the Writers of the Future 2002 Second Quarter competition with "The Road to Levenshir", an excerpt from his then-unpublished novel The Wise Man's Fear.

[10] The Slow Regard of Silent Things, an illustrated novella, was published in October 2014 as a companion story for The Kingkiller Chronicle, centering on the character Auri.

[12] In 2018, Rothfuss was the co-writer of the comics limited series Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1-4 with Jim Zub and with art by Troy Little.

While Wollheim partially agreed that readers shouldn't feel entitled to dictate how Rothfuss spends his time—she also asked, "but what about the publishers who paid them?".

Since its inception, the organization has raised over $11.5 million, primarily for Heifer International, a charity that provides livestock, clean water, education, and training for communities in the developing world.

[27] In June 2020, Rothfuss, in partnership with One Shot Podcast, released a mini-series which is set in the same world as his Kingkiller Chronicles fantasy series.