Julie Leibrich was born in Salford, England, and settled in New Zealand in 1974 where she completed a degree in psychology in 1976. She was awarded her PhD in 1982.
In 1995, Julie received the Todd New Writer's Bursary from Creative New Zealand. This enabled her to follow her first love: poetry. Besides poetry, Julie enjoys writing children's picture books. Her first book, Once in a Blue Moon, was published in 1995, and tells the story of Amy, who dances for the moon. Her second book, The Ossossossorus was published in 1999. It combines alliteration and onomatopoeia with fantasy and monsters under the bed. While writing it, Julie invited a group of children to participate with ideas on how the story should proceed and believes getting children's feedback is the best thing of all.
In 2003, Julie won the inaugural Storylines Joy Cowley Award.

Selected bibliography:

• Once in a Blue Moon illustrated by Jacquelyn E. Lane (Random House 1995).
• The Ossossossorus illustrated by Linda McClelland (Scholastic 1999).
• The Biggest Number in the Universe illustrated by Ross Kinnaird (Scholastic 2004).
• Nesta and the Missing Zero illustrated by Ross Kinnaird (Scholastic 2006).

Awards:

• Storylines Joy Cowley Award 2003.
• Storylines Notable Book Awards 2005 Picture Books List for The Biggest Number in the Universe.