Julie Kagawa joins the authors in the literary zone!

31 January 2025

She was born and raised in Sacramento, California, where she spent the first nine years of her life. However, it was not in California that her love of literature was born. The biggest turning point in her life came after she moved to Hawaii. There she discovered two of her greatest passions – her love of the ocean and books. 

The first thing she discovered in her new place was a huge number of insects and frequent hurricanes. This did not prevent her from pursuing her interests. She spent most of her time in Hawaii in the ocean, swimming and surfing. When she wasn’t running from jellyfish or coastal sharks, she would devote herself to her other passion – reading.

She spent her school years reading between formulas – literally, as her math teachers repeatedly caught her hiding books between the pages of textbooks. She read and wrote – her first stories were dark and full of colorful illustrations, which surprised her teachers. 

The time of dark stories has passed, but Julie’s passion for books has not faded. After college, in order to pay the rent, she worked in many bookstores. Why many? She often read books instead of focusing on her work, which resulted her bosses being rather displeased. She stopped working in bookstores, but that did not mean she was done with literature. She took up work as a dog trainer, meanwhile writing her first book. She worked with animals for several years, enduring the bites of valiant chihuahuas and the over-enthusiasm of labradors, until she managed to sell her first publication. It was then that her dog training days were over and she began writing full-time, thus fulfilling one of her dreams. She has been on the upswing ever since – she has already written several best-selling series, such as: Iron Fey, Blood of Eden, Talon and Shadow of the Fox.

She currently lives in Kentucky with her husband and a pair of beloved Australian Shepherds. Unfortunately, she isn’t taking them to Pyrkon, but that doesn’t change the fact that her program events are a must every fan of fantasy literature!