Julie Akeret

I’ve been telling film stories for over thirty years. I’ve written and directed dozens of my own documentary films, and worked at PBS station WGBY/Springfield MA, writing and directing films with a local focus. My films have aired nationally on PBS and won two Emmy awards.

 

For the last fifteen years I’ve been part of a weekly writing group at Writers in Progress, an inspiring and generative literary community based in Florence, MA.

 

Fiction:

“The Turkey Barn,” short story. First Place, Hampshire Life (weekly magazine) Short Fiction Contest, 2010. Log line: If you want the ruby slippers, free a thousand turkeys at the turkey barn.

 

"Shit-House Crazy," one-act play, Peter Honegger Prize for best one-act, New Works Festival, The Firehouse Center for the Arts, 2017. Log Line: Sparks fly when a teenage girl and a middle age man are double-booked by their psychiatrist.

 

The Ham of God – Julie’s debut middle-grade novel, 2026.

Log line: Can a shrink-wrapped ham save a broken family?

 

Nonfiction:

Essays, columns and letters on social issues, the arts and education published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA 2003-present.

 

Born and raised in NYC (where H&H Bagels and Zohran Mamdani rule), I now live in Northampton, MA (where “the coffee is strong and so are the women”) with my entertaining musician husband, two kids who aspire to be Indiana Jones, and my “such a good girl” dog Penny.

 

I’m represented by the marvelous Sara Megibow at Megibow Literary Agency. You can reach Sara at: sara@megibowliterary.com