Julianne Pachico, born in 1985 in Cambridge, England, grew up in Cali, Colombia, where her parents worked as agricultural social scientists in international development. She earned a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and an M.A. in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia, where she received the Creative Writing International Scholarship. She holds dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship.