ABOUT

Julie is a queer, disabled, neurodivergent author and award-winning poet. She is co-founder of Inklusion: A kickass guide to making literature events accessible to disabled people. 

Poetry
Julie won the Aurora Prize for Writing 2021 with her poem 'Ripples of Change' and she was a finalist in the Glasgow Women's Library Calm Slam 2020, as well as for the Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award 2020. 

Fiction
Her young-adult novel is longlisted for the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices 2022 Anthology and was shortlisted for the Write Mentor Children's Novel Award 2021 and the Owned Voices Novel Award 2021. In 2020 it won a place on the Write Mentor Summer Mentoring Programme 2020.

Non-fiction
Julie was chosen to participate in the Diverse Critics Scheme delivered by Creative Scotland in partnership with Disability Arts Online and The Skinny in 2020. 

Her essays and features have been published in various publications, and her poem, IMAGINE, was published in Not Going Back To Normal - A Disabled Artists Manifesto.

Consultancy 
Through her consultancy work, Julie has helped to improve access to development opportunities for disabled writers and raise awareness of the barriers to development. Clients include Edinburgh International Book Festival, Cymera Festival, Paisley Book Festival, the Scottish Book Trust and Magfest.

Mental health and illness, disability and diversity feature prominently in Julie's work and she is an advocate for diverse representation. Her background is in PR, marketing and events in publishing and she has also been a bookseller. She has an honors degree in Biomedical Science, and recently studied screenwriting at Screen Academy Scotland.

Julie has chaired and spoken at events about diversity, feminism, identity, access and inclusion.