Julia Hettiger is a novelist, writer, compositionist, historian, and editor based out of El Paso, Texas.

An aspiring horror and children’s novelist, her work explores grief, fantasy, and childhood through a humorous, spooky, and insightful lens. By day she works in academia, teaching first year composition to primarily bilingual, first-generation students, and as a freelance journalist, covering everything from book bans to workforce development and entertainment. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University in 2020 and is earning her Ph.D. in English Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Texas at El Paso, where her research focuses include genre theory and censorship in academic writing, the intersections of rhetoric and popular culture, translanguaging in FYC, visual rhetoric, workplace writing, science communications, lifespan studies, and literature. She is a 2026 Tom Lea Fellow, conducting research that centers space, place, and the spectator to understand the rhetorical importance of Tom Lea’s WWII artwork in the face of AI generated artwork created by the Trump Administration. Pedagogically, she hopes to focus on community literacy and writing programs, specifically in prisons and for at-risk individuals, while exploring the dynamic landscape of first year composition in the face of AI and political challenges. She’s passionate about literature, literacy, and supporting prison education programs and is proud to volunteer with PEN America, Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, Society of Young Inklings, and WriteGirl. You can find her reading, cooking, watching scary movies, living out her circus dreams as an aerialist, or daydreaming about nightmares.