Julia Keller

Julia Keller is an accomplished American author, well-known for her mystery novel series featuring Bell Elkins. She was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia, where she developed her love for literature and writing. Keller comes from a family of intellectuals and entrepreneurs, with her grandfather being a miner turned property developer and her father a mathematician who taught at Marshall University.

Keller earned her undergraduate degree from Marshall University and later pursued a doctoral degree in English Literature at Ohio State University. Her passion for Virginia Woolf led her to explore the many biographies of the iconic author in her doctoral thesis. After completing her education, Keller turned to journalism and worked as a cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune, where she won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2005.

In addition to her work as a journalist and author, Keller has been a guest essayist on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS and has contributed to CNN and NBC Nightly News. She has also taught at several prestigious universities, including Princeton and Notre Dame. Keller is a prolific writer who has authored many books for adults and young readers, including the Bell Elkins series, Back Home, and The Dark Intercept. She currently splits her time between a high-rise in Chicago and a stone cottage on a lake in rural Ohio.