About

Julie Tollefson grew up in the sand hills of Southwest Kansas, where she landed her first paying writing gig just out of high school, investigating such hard-hitting stories as “Do blondes really have more fun?” and “Does father know best?” for her hometown newspaper. After stints as a copy editor for a daily newspaper and technical editor in a corporate communications department, Julie joined the ranks of academia as communications director for an educational research unit. She is now a writer and editor based in northeast Kansas.

For almost two decades, she was a regular and award-winning contributor to Lawrence Magazine (Sunflower Publishing). Julie’s short fiction has appeared in anthologies, including Life is Short and Then You Die: First Encounters with Murder from Mystery Writers of America, and in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, which featured her story “Leah” as its November/December 2018 cover story.

Julie’s work-in-progress was named a finalist in the 2022 Killer Nashville Claymore Award competition for best unpublished manuscript in the thriller category. In 2016, she received the Hugh Holton Award for unpublished crime fiction manuscripts, given annually by the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter.

Julie has an amateur, but enthusiastic, interest in nature photography. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and the organization’s Border Crimes chapter, Mystery Writers of America and its Midwest chapter, and International Thriller Writers. She is at work on her first novel. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.