About the Author

Cowgirl-turned-nomadic Navy spouse, Julie Tully writes about life, culture, and the places where they intersect.

Julie’s life reads like a novel—from her roots in rural Northern California to her time as a globe-hopping expat. She is equally at home on the back of a horse rounding up cattle as she is at a formal diplomatic dinner. Her memoir, Dispatches From The Cowgirl: Through The Looking Glass With A Navy Diplomat’s Wife, was published in 2022 and details the years she and her family lived and worked in Africa. Dispatches was the 2023 winner of the prestigious Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal and the Military Writers Society of America Silver Medal. Julie’s writing has also been featured in Legacy MagazineYour Teen For Parents, and Military Spouse Magazine.

About the Author

Cowgirl-turned-nomadic Navy spouse, Julie Tully writes about life, culture, and the places where they intersect.

Julie’s life reads like a novel—from her roots in rural Northern California to her time as a globe-hopping expat. She is equally at home on the back of a horse rounding up cattle as she is at a formal diplomatic dinner. Her memoir, Dispatches From The Cowgirl: Through The Looking Glass With A Navy Diplomat’s Wife, was published in 2022 and details the years she and her family lived and worked in Africa. Dispatches was the 2023 winner of the prestigious Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal and the Military Writers Society of America Silver Medal. Julie’s writing has also been featured in Legacy MagazineYour Teen For Parents, and Military Spouse Magazine.

Headshot of author Julie Tully, a black and white image of a woman with black glasses and blonde hair

Praise for Julie

Julie Tully’s memoir is a vicarious visit to expat life in Africa.

Suzanne Kamata, Clarion Review for Foreword Reviews

Dispatches from the Cowgirl is a well-written personal memoir of an American family’s experience in Africa. Told in short anecdotal chapters it highlights the truism that home is where the heart is and…there is enough incident and personal detailing to provide a valuable insight into the life of a military family abroad. 

IndieReader

Tully’s memoir captures her extraordinary experience of living in Africa as the spouse of a naval diplomat in vivid detail. She’s charming, as is the book…this is a fascinating account of one woman’s journey around the earth. 

BookLife/Publisher's Weekly

Would you move to Africa?

For Julie Tully, a cowgirl who married a United States naval officer, the answer was a no-brainer: Yes!

A cowgirl falls into Africa like Alice into Wonderland, unveiling the little-known world of an American military spouse serving amongst the world’s diplomatic corps.

Part travelogue, part midlife coming-of-age story, DISPATCHES FROM THE COWGIRL takes you to the Africa Julie Tully fell in love with and found hard to leave.

Dispatches from the Cowgirl was the IPBA Ben Franklin Award Gold Winner for memoirs released in 2022.

three images from Julie Tully's life: a journal and drink overlooking Lac Abbe, a horseback rider, and a shot taken in a rearview mirror in the desert in Djibouti
cover of Julie Tully's book Dispatches from the Cowgirl with an image of boots, a palm tree, and a truck driving on a rustic road and the subtitle "through the looking glass with a Navy Diplomat's wife" and "a memoir"

How I wish I had Dispatches from the Cowgirl to prepare me for my own military family adventures overseas! Tully’s memoir will resonate with all readers, both civilian and military, wherever they might find themselves in this far-flung world.

– Siobhan Fallon, author of You Know When the Men are Gone and The Confusion of Languages

flatlay of article in legacy magazine by Julie Tully

Other Writings

From service and sacrifice to parenting, take a peek at Julie’s other stories.

Subscribe to the Dispatches

Julie in a canoe in Cameroon

Subscribe to my newsletter

You'll be first to know when Dispatches from the Cowgirl is available for pre-order!

You have Successfully Subscribed!