I spent my childhood years filling spiral notebooks with poetry and stories. Despite feeling “called” to write, I became sidetracked by the world of academia and a genuine enjoyment for—as well as the work load required by—teaching. In my mid-thirties, however, I realized I might die without ever fulfilling my dream of writing a book.

Panic-driven and poetry-inspired, I began to read every contemporary poet I could get my hands on. And I kept reading. In 2005, I also participated in the Antioch Writers’ Workshop (AWW), which greatly expanded my creative thinking and writing skills. I’ve also participated in Image Journal‘s Glen Workshop many times, which was always an enriching experience for me. I consider every writer I read a mentor and the hours spent reading my life-long education.

Some of my work explores “place” in its broadest sense: Some poems revel in the wonder of creation or bemoan the damages it’s sustained, both here in the Midwest and across the globe. Yet much of my writing focuses on the place of faith amid great suffering by contemplating this question: How do I not wallow in my pain or seek to gloss over it with a glib transcendence but rather endure it, allowing it to do its exacting work on me? As part of such work, recently, I’ve been writing about biblical prophetesses and eunuchs, exploring their powerful voices and choices amid impossible situations. I’m also now writing poetry and creative nonfiction of witness. In so doing, I am not only reckoning with my own whiteness but also probing the devastating consequences of white supremacy in our nation’s history and contemporary manifestations, including in white evangelicalism–its churches, schools, and politics.

The poetic exploration of such themes yields an abundance of questions and discovery, including the need to confess our nation’s evils and establish a just society. These are the daunting themes my poetry addresses. And every time I begin to write a poem, intimidation sits on my shoulder, whispering in my ear, “Who do you think you are? This is beyond you. Don’t even try.”

But try, I do. And thankfully, my writing is receiving notice.

Awards:

A Best of the Net and eight-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Julie L. Moore’s four poetry collections, includes, most recently, Full Worm Moon, which won a 2018 Woodrow Hall Top Shelf Award and received honorable mention for the Conference on Christianity and Literature's 2018 Book of the Year Award. 

Her creative nonfiction has won the Donald Murray Prize from Writing on the Edge and placed as a finalist in the Midwest Review’s Best of the Midwest contest.

Her poetry has won Fare Forward’s 2024 poetry competition, the Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize from Ruminate Magazine, the Editor’s Choice Award from Writecorner Press, and the Rosine Offen Memorial Award from the Free Lunch Arts Alliance.

Teaching:

Julie has taught literature and writing at various universities, including Wilberforce University, and now works remotely for Eastern University as a Senior Online Advisor and First Year Composition Instructor in its new Life Flex program.