Julia grew up in the Mississippi Delta and began her career at Newsweek magazine's Washington Bureau.  For 20 years she was a contributing editor at Vogue. While there, her profile subjects included everyone from Bill and Hillary Clinton and George and Laura Bush to Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Barbra Streisand, and Robert De Niro.

She is author of seven books, including Julia Reed's South, Spirited Entertaining and High Style Fun All Year Long; But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria; One Man's Folly, The Exceptional Houses of Furlow Gatewood; Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and  Other Southern Specialties; The House on First Street, My New Orleans Story; and Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena. Her most recent book, a collection of her Garden & Gun columns entitled South Toward Home,  was published by St. Martin's Press in July 2018. She is currently at work on Julia Reed's New Orleans,  a companion to Julia Reed's South. It will be published by Rizzoli in Spring 2019.