Julia Watts

Julia Watts writes fiction rooted in Appalachia, frequently centering queer lives, family bonds, religious pressure, and the tensions of small communities. Raised in southeastern Kentucky and based in Knoxville, she has published novels for both young people and general audiences through independent presses. Three Rooms Press released Needlework in 2021. It follows Kody, a rural Kentucky teenager who shares sewing, church, and television rituals with his grandmother while concealing important parts of himself. Contact from a previously unknown half sister expands the story into questions of race, kinship, addiction, faith, and inherited secrets. The novel uses needlecraft not simply as decoration but as a language of care, identity, and connection between generations. Watts’s earlier Finding H.F. received a Lambda Literary Award, while Secret City earned further recognition. Across her books, she brings regional specificity to characters whose lives are often excluded from familiar depictions of Appalachia, balancing social conflict with humor and affectionate attention to place.