Julia Bloch : part one

Julia Bloch grew up in Northern California and Sydney, Australia. She earned a BA in political philosophy from Carleton College, an MFA in creative writing from Mills College, and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Letters to Kelly Clarkson, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, and Valley Fever. She is the recipient of the Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award from the San Francisco Foundation, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and other honors. She directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania and is an editor at Jacket2. She lives in Philadelphia.

Photo credit: Ryan Collerd.

What are you working on?

I am finalizing the pages of my third book, The Sacramento of Desire, which is being published in 2020. The book is about fertility, desire, and the queer experience of assisted reproduction; Allison Cobb calls it an “horological epic quest poem” and Sawako Nakayasu calls it “an urgent call.” I am also writing a new book, which will be a hybrid critical-creative work that includes poetry, essay, and memoir. It also deals with the political and social textures of assisted reproduction and queer kinship, but includes deep dives into queer theory and climate change grief.