Julie Murphy

Julie Murphy drafted her first novel during National Novel Writing Month while holding down a job in a Texas library; it reached print in 2014 as Side Effects May Vary. Born in 1985, she was raised in Texas after an early start in Connecticut, and her family lost their house the week she finished high school, which pushed college back. Dumplin' (2015) made her name and grew into a trio of linked young adult books set in Clover City, Texas, continuing with Puddin' (2018) and Pumpkin (2021); each turns on a fat girl who declines to make herself smaller, and Netflix filmed Dumplin' in 2018 under Anne Fletcher's direction. Dear Sweet Pea (2019), her first for middle grade readers, follows a girl whose parents have separated and who ends up writing a neighbour's advice column. A Merry Little Meet Cute (2022), an adult holiday romance co-written with Sierra Simone, opened their Christmas Notch series. Murphy is bisexual and lives in North Texas.