Julie Watts grew up in England in the 1950s and 1960s. She joined Penguin Books Australia in 1980 as a department secretary later becoming an editor and in 1986 publisher of Puffin, the Penguin children's imprint. Under her guidance the imprint built a list of pre-eminent Australian children's writers including Paul Jennings, Robin Klein, Melina Marchetta, Graeme Base and Sonya Hartnett (qq.v.). She published The Wolf by Margaret Barbalet and Jane Tanner, one of the first picture books for older readers, and devised and launched the popular children's series Aussie Bites. Watts left Penguin in 2005 to freelance as a publishing consultant.
Source: 'About Puffin', Puffin Books Australia website, www.puffin.com.au (sighted 3/11/2010); Julie Watts, 'There's Nuffin' Like a Puffin', Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults (Spring, 2010): 2-3