Julia Gray

Awards

• Young Quills Award 2021 - Highly Commended
• Carnegie Medal 2021 - Nominated
• Crimefest, Best YA Novel, 2019 - Shortlisted
• Carnegie Medal 2019 - Nominated
• Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017 - Longlisted
• Carnegie Medal 2017 - Nominated
• Branford Boase Award 2017 - Longlisted

Organisations

• Society of Authors

Details

Testimonials 

"The children were treated to a recorded presentation from author Julia Gray. 

Julia shared insightful information about the writing process for her most recent novel, ‘I, Ada.’ She answered a selection of questions from the children, and announced the winners for the JSD Writing Competition. With over forty entries, she had some tough decisions to make." 

British School, Netherlands

“Julia read various passages from her book, Little Liar, and explained how she became an author, including taking us through the process of publishing a book, from initial ideas and planning, through to proofreading and publication. Julia also explained how and why she had written an EP of five songs to go with the book Little Liar called ‘Songs For Nora Tobias’. She had a strong message about the importance of resilience.

In the afternoon Julia delivered a creative writing session with a group of Year 10 students. During this session, which focused on using sensory language, she explained how she uses a number of questions to generate ideas. Students were then asked to create a short passage of writing based entirely on a piece of music. The students created some fantastic pieces of writing.”

Casterton College

“You are certainly one of the absolute top YA authors we have hosted since I started working here. You really engaged the pupils, and a plethora of teachers have commented to me on how much they enjoyed the talks as well.”

Ibstock Place School

“A number of students and staff have already come to say how much they enjoyed your talk – they found you very engaging, erudite and lovely!”

Sydenham High School

“Julia was a delightful speaker who really conveyed her enthusiasm for writing. Her account of her inspirations and the thought processes involved in putting together her novels was very illuminating, and she also gave the girls a fascinating insight into the long journey to publication. The students particularly enjoyed hearing about the rather unusual ways in which Julia combines her music and her writing, and were keen to hear more of her songs. I am expecting a high demand in the Library for Julia’s novels and will look out for her future work.”

Bromley High School

“Julia is as exciting, engaging and original as her wonderful novel, The Otherlife.  She held us spellbound as she enlightened our students, parents and staff about the process of writing and publishing her book.  We eagerly await her next masterpiece!”

North London Collegiate School

_ _ _ _ 

I have been a published author since 2014; at various other times I am / have been a singer-songwriter, tutor, teacher of Latin and Greek, and author of picture books for the personalised publisher Wonderbly. I am passionate about talking about books, writing and creative processes and working with children of all ages to support them with their own writing adventures. I am very adaptable when it comes to school events and like to tailor my talks and workshops depending on the age of the pupils, the size of the audience/group, and specific requirements. I have run workshops on writing to music, reworking myth, writing in verse, historical fiction and many other themes; I have also taught creative writing in a school setting. 

Having researched the life of Ada Lovelace in detail for my book I, Ada, I have a particular love for talking about this inspirational woman and her contributions to computing; the qualities she had, obstacles she overcame and the extraordinary (and short!) life that she led. I can also talk about how I did the research for this book and how I attempted to bring the character of Ada to life on the page. 

As a teacher of Classics, I also really enjoy using mythology in workshops: encouraging students to develop their own reworkings of their favourite myths and discussing why we all seem to relate so deeply to certain elements of myth. My novel The Otherlife is, in part, a retelling of the Baldr story from Norse mythology. 

With a background in music, I also run workshops in which students use music as the inspiration for pieces of creative writing. 

I am very happy to discuss travel to anywhere in the UK and beyond. 

Keywords