Julia Bell (born 1971) is a British novelist and poet living in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

. She is Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck and the founder and Project Director of the annual publication the ''Mechanics’ Institute Review'' and the website "Writers Hub" . She has published two novels for young adults – ''Massive'' and ''Dirty Work'' – and the bestselling ''Creative Writing Coursebook'', as well as poetry and short stories in various magazines and anthologies. She is an alumna of the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

MA programme and a member of the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

-based Tindal Street Fiction Group.

Works

;''Massive'' Her first novel, ''Massive'', was published in the UK in 2002 (Macmillan) and the US in 2005 (Simon and Schuster). The novel is set in Birmingham and deals with a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother is suffering from

anorexia Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by Calorie restriction, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. Individuals wit ...

. Imogen Russell Williams describes the book in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'': "Julia Bell's 2002 novel Massive focuses on Carmen, the unlucky teenage daughter of rail-thin, glamorous, ambitious Maria, who oscillates between anorexia and

bulimia Bulimia nervosa, also known simply as bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating (eating large quantities of food in a short period of time, often feeling out of control) followed by compensatory behaviors, such as self-induc ...

like a nightmarish pinball, calling Carmen "Miss Piggy" and castigating her for hoarding sweet wrappers behind her headboard. Eventually, Maria inculcates Carmen with the seductive delusion that mastery of food equals mastery of fate, and the book culminates in a dreadful duel between mother and daughter, both desperate to prove themselves stronger, more powerful and more in control of their fabulous destiny by refusing to cave in and eat." According to

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

, the book is in over 430 libraries. ;''Dirty Work'' Her second novel, ''Dirty Work'', published in the UK (Macmillan) and US (Simon & Schuster) in 2007, deals with issues of human trafficking, especially for the sex trade. The book was well-received, with Stephanie Merritt describing it in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' as: "Julia Bell's gritty second novel WorldCat title listing
/ref> ;''The Creative Writing Coursebook'' Published in 2001 (Macmillan), the book was created while Bell was teaching an undergraduate creative writing course at the

. It is devised as a series of lesson plans with contributions from 40 authors including David Lodge, Malcolm Bradbury">David Lodge (author)">David Lodge, Malcolm Bradbury, Ali Smith">Malcolm_Bradbury.html" ;"title="David Lodge (author)">David Lodge, Malcolm Bradbury">David Lodge (author)">David Lodge, Malcolm Bradbury, Ali Smith, Vicki Feaver. Bell's teaching is also available online on the Writers Hub website. She gives an annual lecture to the MA students at Birkbeck. Her most recent on "Territory and the work of Damon Galgut."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Julia 1971 births Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia 21st-century English novelists Academics of Birkbeck, University of London