Julie Keys lives in the Illawarra on the NSW south coast. Her debut novel, The Artist’s Portrait, was shortlisted for The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers in 2017 and was published by Hachette in March 2019.
Julie was awarded a Varuna LitLink Residential Fellowship in 2017, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2015, received 3rd place in the Boroondara Literary Awards in 2013 and shortlisted for the Overland Short Story Prize in 2012. Her short stories have been published across a range of Australian journals.
Julie has worked as a tutor, a Registered Nurse, in positions related to youth homelessness and as a clinical trials co-ordinator. Her life was transformed after a tangle with a B-double truck on the Picton Road. She escaped uninjured, resigned from her job and is now studying a PhD in creative arts at the University of Wollongong and writing full-time.
website: https://www.juliekeys.com.au
Praise for The Artist’s Portrait
“A compelling new voice in Australian fiction. A story that deserves to be told. I couldn’t put it down.” – Nikki Gemmell, award-winning and bestselling author
“This novel is intriguing, evocative and had me catching my breath” – Joanna Nell, author of The Single Ladies of the Jacaranda Retirement Village
“The Artist’s Portrait is a genre-bending novel that embraces all its contradictions, at once an undertaking of murder mystery, biography, drama and art history… This is a work of smart, moving and gripping Australian fiction.” Readings
“I read the book twice to get the whole picture and found new things to admire on every page, and I was in awe of Keys’s narrative skill.” The Newtown Review of Books