Biography
Professional Biography
Julie L. Moore is the author of Slipping Out of Bloom, forthcoming from WordTech Editions in 2010, and Election Day, published by Finishing Line Press in 2006. Moore’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Blueline, Chautauqua Literary Journal, The Christian Century, Christianity and Literature, The Christian Science Monitor, The Cresset, Flint Hills Review, The Fourth River, Free Lunch, The MacGuffin, The Rambler, Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression, River Oak Review, RUMINATE: Faith in Literature and Art, Sou’Wester, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and Willow Review, among many others. Online, her work has also appeared or is forthcoming at Apple Valley Review, Creekwalker, The Fairfield Review (where her work was selected as an “Editor’s Choice”), Greensilk Journal, miller’s pond, and Valparaiso Poetry Review.
Slipping Out of Bloom was a finalist for the Carnegie Mellon University Press Poetry Series in 2007. Moore was also named a finalist in the 2007 poetry contest sponsored by Many Mountains Moving, and she won second honorable mention in the 2006 National Poet Hunt Contest sponsored by The MacGuffin (judged by Laurence Lieberman). In addition, “Election Day,” the title poem of her chapbook, was named a semi-finalist in the 2005 poetry contest sponsored by The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review (judged by Gregory Orr), placing in the top 100 of 1400 entries.
Moore is the Writing Center Director at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, where she lives with her husband John; children, Ashley and Alex; and their beloved Black Lab Maggie.
Personal Statement
I grew up in Moorestown, New Jersey, and transformed from Jersey Girl to Heartland Lover when I came to Cedarville College located in rural, southwestern Ohio. I earned my B.A. in English there, then my M.A. in English nearby at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.
I spent my childhood years filling spiral notebooks with poetry and stories. Despite feeling “called” to write, I became sidetracked by the world of academia and a genuine enjoyment for—as well as the work load required by—teaching. In my mid-thirties, however, I realized I might die without ever fulfilling my dream of writing a book. Panic-driven and poetry-inspired, I began to read every contemporary poet I could get my hands on. And I kept reading. In 2005, I also participated in the Antioch Writers’ Workshop (AWW), which greatly expanded my creative thinking and writing skills. I’ve continued to participate at AWW and to study poetry in my own time. I consider every writer I read a mentor and the hours spent in reading my life-long education (with no graduation in sight!).
My work thus far explores “place” in its broadest sense. Some poems revel in the wonder of creation or bemoan the damages it’s sustained. Some poems discover connections between the natural world and the spiritual, or emotional, realm. Because of the pain I’ve faced in my own life, some poems search the deep recesses of suffering and all that entails—perseverance and surrender, tough questions and even tougher answers. The poetic exploration of such places, sometimes silent, sometimes deafening, often neither, or both, yields an abundance of discovery, even if that discovery is merely a reminder of the mysteries inherent in truth and beauty. These are the daunting themes my poetry addresses. And every time I begin to write a poem, intimidation sits on my shoulder, whispering in my ear, “Who do you think you are? This is beyond you. Don’t even try it.”