Julia Usman was brought up on a farm in the North Riding of Yorkshire close to the Yorkshire Dales National Park where she lives at present.
 
Her love of English began as a young child. She has an MA in Victorian Literature from the University of Leeds.
 
She has written articles on the natural world and the customs and traditions of people living and working in farming. Her farming heritage is never far removed from her poems and is often used as a platform to explore the complexities of relationships within the metaphor of changing landscapes, both external and internal.
 
She is a member of several writing groups and has twice attended Ty Newydd, and a writing retreat on Iona, successfully publishing poems in numerous journals and anthologies, including Communion (Walleah Press, Tasmania) and New Contexts: 2 (Coverstory Books, 2021). She was awarded 4th prize in the Welsh Poetry Competition 2021.
 
Her first collection is She Who Sings Is Not Always Happy, published by Coverstory Books at the beginning of March 2021 (ISBN 978-1-8382321-3-9)
 
Review comments:
 

[Her poetry is] wonderfully sparse, often cut to a minimum but well-refined – a directness where the reader is taken straight to the crux of the poem. Such brevity, like daubs on canvas, will leave you wanting more

Alison Lock

Her close observations and reflections are deeply layered with longing and grace for people loved and times gone

Kerry Darbishire

The poems sing of joy and loss; pain and beauty – spare and clear, they remind me of spring water, yet they allow breathing space for the reader to enter

Geraldine Green