Julie Cantrell

Julie Cantrell is an award-winning New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling novelist whose work focuses on relationships, resilience, and spirituality. As a writer, speaker, TEDx presenter, editor, and teacher, she aims to build empathy and connection while inspiring others to live their best life.\n\nHer debut novel, Into the Free, earned a starred review by Publishers Weekly, the Mississippi Library Association’s Fiction Award, and the Christy Award Book of the Year. It also was named a Best Read of 2012 by USA TODAY (HEA), while becoming both a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller.\n\nThe sequel, When Mountains Move, was named a 2013 Best Read by USA TODAY (HEA), a finalist for numerous awards, and winner of the Carol Award for Historical Fiction. \n\nHer third novel, The Feathered Bone was selected as an Okra Pick by SIBA and Book of the Year by Pulpwood Queens. A short-list finalist for three literary awards, including the Southern Book Prize, it earned a starred review by Library Journal, who also named it a Best Book of 2016.\n\nPerennials, her fourth novel, was named a top read by numerous outlets including LitHub, Southern Living, Redbook Magazine, and the Southern Independent Booksellers Association. It became a Mississippi bestseller and was named Bonus Book of the Year by the Pulpwood Queens.\n\nA certified speech-language pathologist and naturalist, Cantrell has served as editor-in-chief of the Southern Literary Review. She is a recipient of the Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Fellowship as well as the Mary Elizabeth Nelson Fellowship at Rivendell Writers’ Colony, and she was named a 2017 finalist for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award.\n\nCrescendo is her first work of creative nonfiction, (HarperCollins, 2019).\n\n\n