Julia Scheeres
| Julia Scheeres | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Julia Scheeres Lafayette, Indiana |
| Residence | Berkeley, California |
| Occupation | Journalist, author |
| Known for | Author of Jesus Land, A Thousand Lives |
| Spouse(s) | Tim Rose |
| Children | Tessa Rose-Scheeres, Davia Rose-Scheeres |
| Website | www |
Julia Scheeres (pronounced "shears"), is a journalist and nonfiction author. Born in Lafayette, Indiana, Scheeres received a bachelor's degree in Spanish from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a master's in journalism from the University of Southern California. Now living and working in San Francisco, California, she has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired News, and LA Weekly.
Scheeres came to prominence with the 2005 publication of Jesus Land, a memoir of her turbulent youth growing up rebellious in a strict fundamentalist Christian family near West Lafayette, Indiana, including a harrowing stint in a Christian "reform school" in the Dominican Republic. The memoir is centered on her relationship with her adoptive brother David, of African-American ancestry (Scheeres is white), and on their shared experiences coping with both religious and racial intolerance, in Lafayette, including at William Henry Harrison High School. Scheeres has described the genesis of the book by stating, "I knew David better than anyone. From the time he was adopted at age three until he died in a car crash at age 20, we were in constant contact. We were the same age. We shared classrooms, church youth groups, even a reform school. It fell on my shoulders to keep his memory alive. This was a heavy burden."
Jesus Land was a New York Times bestseller, and a Times bestseller in the UK (where it was published under the title Another Hour on a Sunday Morning). The book was also the winner of the American Library Association's ALex Award and the New Visions Nonfiction Book Award. The trade publication Publishers Weekly declared the book "announces the author as a writer to watch," and the Boston Globe praised it as "rough, brutal, and shockingly good." She stated in her memoir that she is no longer a Christian but a humanist.
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Wikipedia