Julie Watts

Julie Watts (born 1950)- author and publisher - was the 2001 winner of the Dromkeen Medal.

Background

Watts was born in Guildford, Surrey, England. From birth to five she was raised by her grandparents. At that point she moved with her mother to Battersea, London. Three years later her mother married and Watts gained a stepfather, stepsister and a half-brother. Her mother worked in a second-hand bookshop after Julie was born. She married her childhood sweetheart and in 1974 the couple and their two kids went to Australia in the hope of finding her birth father. Her father had sponsored Watts and her family as part of the Assisted Passage 'Ten Pound Pom' scheme. They planned on returning after two years but they stayed.

Watts lives in the country with her husband and the two of them are rebuilding their stone cottage and growing vegetables now that she has retired. But she is still involved in the publishing scene here and there takes on a private job, working from my garden studio.

Education

Watts studied at North London’s East Barnet Grammar School. She completed her ‘A’ Levels and left school with secretarial qualifications.

Employment

Her first job was Secretary to the Editor of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. She started at Penguin as Chief Editor for Fiction and thereafter was promoted to Publisher for Books for Children and Young Adults. Since 2005 Watts has worked as a freelance consultant. During this time her energies have been focused on working with authors including: Pamela Allen, Paul Jennings, Sonya Hartnett and Li Cunxin, as well as with newcomers such as Jon Bauer.

Publishing career

Watts has worked in publishing for over three-and-a-half decades. She has been with Penguin Books for 25 of these years, starting her career at Puffin Australia in 1986, playing a key role in developing the firm’s early success and making it the highly reputable publishing house it is today. Within this framework, she has worked with many of America’s top writers and illustrators. Indeed it was Watts who was behind the idea and creation of Puffin Aussie Bites and thereafter Nibbles and Chomps.

Some of her favorite titles in her publishing career include: Wilful Blue and Sleeping Dogs by Sonya Hartnett, The Wolf by Margaret Barbalet, Graeme Base’s Animalia, The Eleventh Hour as well as his own book The Art of Graeme Base.

Books

Watts is the author of the following books: The Art of Graeme Base (co-authored with Graeme Base), Murder by the Letters: 26 Terrible Tales (co-authored with Jessica M. Kirkpatrick), Honey & Hemlock. She was a contributor to the book, The Darwin Murders, Dismembered: They Had it Coming.

Awards

Watts received both the Pixie O’Harris Award for Distinguished and Dedicated Service to the Development and Reputation of Australian Children's Books and the Dromkeen Medal for her contribution to children’s literature.

Other achievements

The Victorian Society of Editors made a presentation based on a transcript from three books and a film of Julie Watts. Bruce Beresford directed the film version.

Personal sentiments

Watts has always had a love for books and for getting kids to enjoy books. But she says with some regret that: “We have to move with the times. My only regret is that everything is so fast now, there's no time to sit and look at the clouds like we used to. People don't read aloud so much anymore. So if there was a way of keeping children still for a while and reading to them . . . no pictures or illustrations, so they are spellbound and use their imagination. If we can't imagine we can't know what it's like to be in someone else's shoes. It's what gives us empathy, what makes us human.”

She also emphasizes the importance of the relationship between publisher, author, editor and designer, relating to work together as a dream team, with a shared vision, working so hard to make it happen, to ensure that others would love Li’s story as much as we did.