Born in the for­mer USSR and raised a proud cit­i­zen of Chica­go Julia Alek­seye­va is an author-illus­tra­tor as well as an aca­d­e­m­ic. She is a PhD can­di­date in Com­par­a­tive Lit­er­a­ture at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty and teach­es Cin­e­ma Stud­ies at Brook­lyn Col­lege. A ​“root­less cos­mopoli­tan” by choice Julia cur­rent­ly lives in Brook­lyn with her part­ner Bran­don and a dog named Leopold Bloom.