Julia Kolesova was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1967. She graduated from St. Petersburg University (Swedish language and literature) in 1988. Since then, she has been working in the three major fields: teaching Swedish to Russian students; acting as interpreter in various Swedish-Russian joint humanitarian and educational projects, and translating Swedish literature, both fiction and non-fiction, into Russian.

Among several dozens of books translated, the most important to mention are Alfred Nobel’s Biography by Ingrid Carlberg, Stieg Larsson’s Biography by Jan-Erik Petterson, The Gospel of Eels by Patrik Svensson, book series for children by Maria Engstrand and a great number of crime novels by Liza Marklund, Åsa Larsson and others.

She attended the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators Visby in 1995, 1999 and 2005 and International Conferences for Translators arranged by the Swedish Culture Council 2018 and 2019. Since 2007, she was a member of Anna Savitskaya's Seminar on Translation of Swedish Literature and Fiction.

Coauthor in several translators' projects – important non-fiction books translated from Swedish to Russian by the members of the seminar. Participant of a number of conferences and workshops on Swedish literature in Russia and abroad.

Julia Kolesova was awarded with the SWEA price 2012 for the promotion of Swedish Culture and Tradition outside Sweden.