Meteorites:
December, 2019: PRISM International included a review, in which my style was compared to that of Mavis Gallant. Thank you, thank you!!
October, 2019 Ormsby Review, reviewed Meteorites: Uneasy Stories, Imperfect Lives.
June 12th, Meteorites was reviewed on Pickle Me This, Kerry Clare’s wonderful literary blog!
For Reading Addicts has included my collection on their list of 10 New Short Story Collections to See You Through the Summer. Chuffed!
May 2019: Included on Bustle: 25 New Short Story Collections to Read this Summer!! What company it keeps.
I’m so pleased that Meteorites was reviewed in Quill and Quire by Steven W. Beattie. (May 2019)
And Foreword Reviews has a full review online, but here’s a snippet:
Interviews:
Cornelia Hoogland and I had a great chat on the LCP’s website, about our shortlisted books.
Winter, 2018, Compose Journal: 10 Questions
February 2017: Last week I had the good fortune to chat with Robyn Burns on CBC’s All Points West about my new book, The Rules of the Kingdom. Thank you, Robyn! (not archived, alas).
2016 and earlier:
The New Quarterly‘s Susan Scott asked me some questions after my essay won their Edna Staebler personal essay contest! Love TNQ.
Literary Goon asked me some great questions over on his blog on October 20th. Thanks, Will!
12 or 20 Questions: rob mclennan asked me about the fragrance of home and 19 more questions on his chock-full blog.
I was so pleased to be included in Lauren Carter’s Firelight Interview Series, available here.
BackBeat Books in Perth is hosting me on Authors for Indies day, and Christine asked me some fun questions in this interview.
The thoughtful Christina Consolino at Literary Mama interviewed me for their Profiles section. So glad to have been included in this USA-based magazine for writers / mothers.
Reviews:
Click on the publication’s name for the full review on their site. Thanks for reading!
Prairie Fire‘s stellar review of The Rules of the Kingdom, June 2018
May 2018, my poetry collection was reviewed in Canadian Literature
The Rules of the Kingdom was reviewed in The Malahat Review!
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The GVPL has a lovely review of The Pull of the Moon in honour of it making the Victoria Book Prize shortlist!
This Place A Stranger, the non-fiction anthology I’m so pleased to have an essay in, got a stellar review in the Vancouver Sun.
The Inquisitive Critic: “The Pull of the Moon is a prime specimen of modern literary fiction. Paul takes a long, hard look at common, everyday life and all the peculiarities it possesses.”
The Winnipeg Review: “The Pull Of The Moon isn’t a world of straightforward happy endings. It’s a world where nothing is perfect, and people must learn to live with each other, despite their loved one’s complex flaws. It consistently succeeds in portraying such a world, thanks to Paul’s ability to capture both the warmth and the strangeness of the way people behave.”
The Other Press: “In first-, second-, and third-person, Paul’s characters are so real you can feel their pulse, their pains, and their thrills.”
Rover Arts: “This is writing of emotional veracity with an edge, of humour alongside gravity, of darkness tempered with blithe optimism. The pull of Julie Paul is powerful.”
The Coastal Spectator: “In her second collection of short stories, Julie Paul surveys the minutiae of human relationships with a sharp and quizzical eye. … This particular cartography is often entertaining, frequently disturbing, and always illuminating.”
The Toronto Star: “Modern short stories can be plotless, pretentious and downright irritating. This isn’t a problem with the work of Vancouver writer Paul, who writes insightful and entertaining stories, often with a West Coast connection. Her male central characters tend to be good men felled by grief. Her women can be loopy and fanciful. This new collection of 12 stories doesn’t disappoint.” (I’m from Victoria, not Vancouver, but it’s close, so close!)
And… The Globe and Mail reviewed the book on November 7th, 2014, under the headline “Three small press books worth a read.” “The through-line in Julie Paul’s second collection of stories is a small yet powerful transformation in character: in each, a person feels the near-physical pull of something outside themselves. … If there is an underlying message, it’s that we all at some point feel the pull of the moon. Paul is consistently quick off the mark in characterization and establishing scene: we fully inhabit the new, distinct world of each story by its second page. Collections can be hit-and-miss affairs. This one is thoroughly good.”
Then, they included the Moon on their Top 100 Books of 2014. OMG!
YAM magazine in Victoria (Nov./Dec. 2014 issue) says the stories contain, among other things, “genuine humanity and insight that leads to understanding.” You can find that magazine around town, and eventually it will be online on their site.
Calgary’s Freefall Magazine has this to say about The Pull of the Moon.
In December, it was recommended in the Ottawa Citizen’s Christmas Book Recommendations, as written by GG nominees and winners. Thank you, Arleen Paré!
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From the cover, here’s what my wonderful blurbers have to say about The Pull of the Moon:
“Danger: High Voltage. Julie Paul’s stories are masterful and sexy.” Kathleen Winter, author of Annabel, boYs, Boundless and The Freedom in American Songs.
“Julie Paul’s wistful, charming stories—full of humour and subtle revelations—strike gently but powerfully at the heart. The Pull of the Moon is a delight.” Shaena Lambert, author of Oh, My Darling, Radiance and The Falling Woman.
“Fresh and contemporary… real life captured eloquently and with subtlety.” Lee Henderson, author of The Broken Record Technique, The Man Game and the new novel, The Road Narrows as You Go.
“The Pull of the Moon is filled with finely detailed stories of domestic life. It’s a collection laced with surprises and deftly woven moments of wonder. Julie Paul’s is a world where families, friendships, and relationships fall apart and where desperate people struggle to put them back together.” Daniel Griffin, author of Stopping for Strangers.
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My short fiction, in both The Jealousy Bone and the anthology Coming Attractions 07, has been reviewed in a variety of places, including:
http://www.orleansstar.ca/Arts/2012-06-07/article-2996593/The-Jealousy-Bone-Book-Review/1
A review in RED letter, a Toronto-based publication
Boulevard Magazine www.victoriaboulevard.com (review below)
By The Book by Greg Pratt
Julie Paul is another local writer, and her first collection of short stories, The Jealousy Bone (Emdash, 2008), is creating quite a bit of buzz. For good reason: Paul’s writing is snappy and concise, with lots of insightful moments disguised as everyday observations. Although The Jealousy Bone appears to be a collection of tales about relationships, the book goes much deeper. In “False Spring,” a character wanders around Victoria wearing a coat—and nothing underneath it; “Boring Baby” finds the protagonist stuck with a baby that is just that: “Feeding on Demand” has a mother exhausted from trying to breastfeed her daughter. Through these events the reader learns about the characters and finds they are more than just modern people in modern relationships—they are human, and they have struggles large and small.
Paul has a way with words, be it sharp one-liners (“The computer icons grin like perfect teeth,” a one-sentence paragraph in “Backstory,” is both humourous and chilling) or elaborate prose tying together the lives of several loosely connected characters. If this collection of stories is any indication, Paul has a great future if writing ahead of her. I can only imagine the joy—and critical acclaim—a full-length novel would bring.