Julia Watts

Julia Watts is the author of 14 novels for both young adults and adults. Her books, set in Appalachia, often depict the lives of LGBTQ people in the Bible Belt. Her young adult novel Needlework was selected as Tennessee’s youth selection for the “Great Reads from Great Places” list for the 2022 National Book Festival of the Library of Congress, and won Honorable Mention for Best YA novel of the year in the Foreword Reviews INDIES awards. Her novel Finding H.F. won the Lambda Literary Award in the children/young adult category. Her novel Quiver, set in rural Tennessee, received a rare “Perfect 10 Rating” from VOYA Magazine, and was selected for the American Library Association’s Rainbow List. Her novel Secret City was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and a winner of a Golden Crown Literary Award. In 2020 Watts was given the Tennessee Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award. She lives in Knoxville and just completed her PhD in Literacy Studies from The University of Tennessee. Her newest novel is Lovesick Blossoms.