Julia Bianco (CWR ’16) is having a big year.
The Case Western Reserve University alumna recently published her debut novel, Witch Season, a contemporary fantasy from St. Martin’s Press—and it’s already on its way to television. In June, Deadline reported that Lionsgate Television is developing the book as a series, with Bianco tapped to write and executive produce.
For Bianco, the milestone is the latest step in a creative path that began at Case Western Reserve College of Arts and Sciences. A cognitive science and political science major who also immersed herself in English and creative writing, she found that studying how people think—and how systems of power work—gave her strong material for fiction. “Writing is something that you kind of just have to do a lot of, and then you’ll just continue to get better at,” she said. “But no matter how good a writer you are, you’re always gonna need to have something to write about.”
Those interests now shape the world of Witch Season, which blends magic, romance and action with deeper questions of privilege, belonging and control. Set in Los Angeles, the novel follows witch enforcer Katherine Barnes as tensions between rival covens threaten to spiral into war. Bianco has said she loves writing fantasy grounded in the modern era because “you get to have everything heightened while still exploring real problems in our world.”
The television adaptation feels like a natural fit. Bianco has worked in film and TV before—including alongside director Jon M. Chu on the Wicked films—but bringing her own book to the screen is something new. “It was very, very cool. It was very exciting,” she said of the Lionsgate development news. At the same time, she added, it is also “a little nerve-racking” because she understands the responsibility that comes with adaptation. “I’ve worked on some book adaptations, and you really don’t want to let the author down,” she said. “Right now I also feel that, but then the author is also me.”
A native of Montville, N.J., Bianco has credited CWRU with helping her grow as both a writer and a thinker, and is quick to credit the lasting impact of classes with novelist and Distinguished University Professor Thrity Umrigar, PhD, which sharpened her focus on developing deep, resonant characters to inhabit.
From University Circle to Los Angeles, Bianco’s story is a Spartan success story with real momentum—and with a second book already slated for 2027, Witch Season is just the beginning.
