Julianna Baggott

Julianna Baggott – Life, Career, and Memorable Quotes

Explore the life and literary journey of Julianna Baggott (born September 30, 1969) — novelist, essayist, poet, professor, and author of the Pure trilogy. Discover her themes, influences, and inspiring quotes.

Introduction

Julianna Baggott (born September 30, 1969) is an American novelist, essayist, and poet whose work spans adult, young adult, and children’s literature. Under her own name and pen names (Bridget Asher and N.E. Bode), she has published more than 20 books exploring themes of identity, loss, hope, and transformation. Best known perhaps for her post-apocalyptic Pure trilogy, Baggott’s writing is marked by emotional truth, genre fluidity, and a belief in the power of stories to heal, reveal, and connect.

Early Life, Education & Family

Julianna Baggott was born on September 30, 1969.

She is married to writer David G. W. Scott, and they have four children.

Her early work began in her twenties. Her first novel Girl Talk was published while she was still young, launching her into a career of prolific writing.

Career and Achievements

Multiple Identities as Writer

Julianna Baggott writes under several names:

• Julianna Baggott — for many of her adult and young adult novels as well as poetry and essays

• Bridget Asher — for a set of women’s fiction / romance / relationship novels (e.g. The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted)

• N.E. Bode — for children’s and middle-grade works (e.g. The Anybodies series)

This multiplicity allows her to cross genres and readerships without being constrained by expectations.

Major Works & Themes

Some of her notable novels include:

• Girl Talk

• The Miss America Family

• The Madam

• Which Brings Me to You

• Pure, Fuse, Burn — the Pure trilogy (post-apocalyptic / speculative)

• Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders

• Others: The Anybodies, The Slippery Map, The Prince of Fenway Park among children/YA titles

Her poems are collected in volumes like This Country of Mothers, Compulsions of Silkworms & Bees, and Lizzie Borden in Love.

Themes across her work often include:

• Identity & transformation — characters reshaping themselves after trauma or loss

• Memory and forgetting — how memory binds or wounds us

• Sacrifice, love, and survival — what one must give up or guard to endure

• Genre as tool — she treats genres (speculative, literary, YA) as vessels rather than boundaries

• Faith, doubt, and moral complexity — her writing often engages with religious questions, questioning institutions while respecting spiritual imagination

Honors & Recognition

• Baggott is a 2013 Alex Award recipient (which honors adult books with special appeal to young adults).

• Her novels Pure and Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year.

• She has received fellowships from organizations such as the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, and the Delaware Division of Arts.

• Baggott’s work (both fiction and poetry) appears in prestigious literary journals and anthologies; her essays have been featured in periodicals like The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Glamour.

Personality, Style & Literary Approach

Voice & Style
Baggott’s writing often feels emotionally raw, lyrical, and ambitious. She is not afraid to mix tones — heartbreak, despair, humor, and hope can coexist in one narrative. She sees genre distinctions as permeable:

“I write across genres so I see them, more often, as complementary instead of separated by boundaries.”

She talks about storytelling urgency:

“As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently — as if whispering it into one ear — and to know the characters intimately.”

She also acknowledges that once she starts writing, characters take on lives of their own:

“I always think I know the way a novel will go. … But the truth is my characters start doing and saying things I don’t expect.”

Beliefs & Internal Tension
Baggott maintains a nuanced relationship with faith. She identifies as “a writer of faith who worries about the intolerance of religion.” She has referred to her Catholic upbringing, yet also her disillusionment:

“I am deeply Catholic and always will be, but I’m no longer a member of the church. I left in 2003 because of the sex abuse scandal.”

Her work often grapples with the tension between institutional religion and personal spirituality, and the moral ambiguity that comes with human imperfection.

Additionally, she is socially observant: she does not block out society, but lets the world inform her work.

Famous Quotes of Julianna Baggott

Here are some standout quotes that capture Baggott’s sensibility:

“A good novel doesn’t just transcend the boundaries of its target market — it knows nothing about target markets.”

“Writing stories is the habit of lying put to good use.”

“I always think I know the way a novel will go … But the truth is my characters start doing and saying things I don’t expect.”

“I write across genres so I see them, more often, as complementary instead of separated by boundaries.”

“Don’t shame the young for releasing their pent-up fear.”

“Beauty, you can find it here if you look hard enough.”

“Weakness, like not being able to bury the past. Weakness, like not giving up hope when you know you should.”

“People know the difference between good and evil in their hearts — if they search them. Religions twist good and evil. Their differences are the kind that need to be taught because they aren’t natural.”

These quotes reflect her concerns with truth, moral complexity, emotional honesty, and the power of stories.

Lessons from Julianna Baggott

From her life and words, here are some lessons writers, readers, and creatives can draw:

1. Don’t be confined by genre boxes
   Baggott shows that crossing genres can enrich your voice rather than dilute it.

2. Let characters surprise you
   Even the best planning can’t contain a story entirely; trust what your characters demand.

3. Write with urgency and intimacy
   Treat the story like a whispered secret—make the reader lean in.

4. Hold tensions, don’t resolve them too cleanly
   Her work often lives in the messy spaces between faith and doubt, hope and despair.

5. Stories preserve and heal
   In her work and beliefs, she views stories as sacred—what we have, what we pass to others.

6. Be honest about the cost
   Writing is both “curse and cure.” It demands sacrifice, vulnerability, and persistence.

Conclusion

Julianna Baggott is a writer of rare agility: she moves across genres with purpose, refuses easy moral binaries, and remains deeply invested in the emotional truth of her characters. Her career — across adult, YA, children’s writing, poetry, and academia — shows a willingness to explore, risk, and grow.