Julia Quinn is a best-selling American author of historical romance fiction. She has been inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Her Bridgerton series of novels has been adapted for Netflix by Shondaland in December 2020, and Season 2 premiered on March 2022.
Julia Quinn is the pen name of Julie Pottinger (née Cotler). She was raised primarily in New England, although she spent much of her time in California following her parents' divorce. She has three sisters.
At the age of 12, after an argument with her father about the usefulness of reading romance, she first tried to write her own novel. Julia Quinn is a graduate of Harvard & Radcliffe Colleges with a degree in Art History and briefly attended Yale School of Medicine before deciding to pursue a full-time writing career.
Quinn began to write light-hearted Regency novels. Her first two novels, Splendid and Dancing At Midnight (both 1995), had been sold at auction, an unusual occurrence for a novice romance author. She was only 24 years old.
At the present time, Quinn is the author of over 40 books. According to her official web, her novels have been translated into 41 languages, and have appeared on The New York Times Bestseller List 19 times.
Quinn won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award in 2007 for On the Way to the Wedding and again in 2008 for The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever. She also won 2010 for What Happens in London and became (at the time) the youngest member to be inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame.
Her most popular Bridgerton books became a Netflix original series in 2020. Set between 1813 and 1827, the Bridgerton Series is a collection of eight novels, each featuring one of the eight children of the late Viscount Bridgerton. Later, in response to reader requests, she wrote a long epilogue about all the main characters and collected it into The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After, along with a bonus novella about Violet, called “Violet in Bloom.”
Julia Quinn currently resides in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and two children.
Fun fact: In 2001 Julia Quinn was a contestant on the game show The Weakest Link and won $79,000.
Photo credit: Twitter @GrahamMasterton
