Julie Buntin is the author of Marlena, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, a Nevada Reads selection, and winner of a Michigan Notable Book Award. The novel was released in ten territories worldwide and named a best book of the year by over a dozen outlets, including The Washington Post, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews. Buntin’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, Vogue, and The New York Times, among other publications. Her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the New York Community Trust. She has two forthcoming books: a co-edited anthology of dispatches from postpartum life called Notes to New Mothers (Norton), and a second novel – winner of the Ellen Levine Fund for Writers Award – to be published by Random House in 2026.  

Previously, Buntin was an editor and director of writing programs at Catapult. She has taught creative writing at NYU, Columbia University, Marymount Manhattan College, the Yale Writers’ Workshop, Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Lit Fest, and elsewhere. Now, she mostly writes and teaches in Ann Arbor, where she is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.