Amy Jo

Burns

Novelist

Memoirist

Travels from: Newark, NJ

“Amy Jo Burns has written a soul-stirring marvel in Wait for Me―a novel as wild, lyrical, and full of longing as the songs at its center. Every lyric is a clue, and every character sings with bruised, unforgettable beauty. I would follow Amy Jo Burns anywhere she leads.” — Paula McLain, author of Skylark and The Paris Wife

Amy Jo Burns is the author of four books, including her most recent novel, Wait for Me, which was selected for the Today Show’s Read With Jenna Book Club, the Good Housekeeping Book Club, and the Indie Next list for March 2026.

All of Amy Jo’s books feature big-hearted, ambitious women, and she loves to write about the undeniable pull of home. Her novel, Mercury, was a national Barnes & Noble Book Club pick, an Editor’s Choice Selection at The New York Times, a Harper’s Bazaar Book Chat selection, and People Magazine’s Book of the Week. Shiner, Amy Jo’s debut novel, was a Barnes and Noble Discover pick and an NPR Best Book of the Year, and her memoir, Cinderland, received a starred review from Library Journal.

Amy Jo’s writing has also appeared in Elle, Good Housekeeping, The Paris Review, and Roxane Gay’s anthology Not That Bad. She has taught writing at Rutgers University and the Arts Council of Princeton, in addition to seminars and workshops for various audiences, including West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh.

A Cornell University graduate and a native of Western Pennsylvania, Amy Jo lives in New Jersey with her family and their pet turtle Steve. She is at work on a new novel.

Amy Jo's Featured Titles

Wait for Me: A Novel

Celadon Books |

March 3, 2026

Literary Fiction

A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK

“Wait for Me left me speechless…An absolutely gorgeous exploration of friendship, authenticity, and the power that a few strings and a well-written lyric can wield.” ―Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

From the author of Mercury and Shiner comes a novel about the bond between two female folk singers, the love stories that haunt them, and the music that brings them together to burn bright.

Young folk singer Elle Harlow reaches the height of her prowess in 1973, with two wildly beloved albums to her name and a hidden history of impossible heartbreak. When she sets foot on the famed Grand Ole Opry stage, a far cry from the mountain that raised her, Elle gives the biggest performance of her life. Then, to the dismay of shocked fans, her producer, and the man who still loves her, she vanishes.

Almost two decades later, eighteen-year-old Marijohn Shaw is spending her summer pumping gas, writing songs on her broken mandolin, and longing for a mother. Her father, Abe, has always sworn he was the last person to see Elle Harlow alive, but when a meteor strikes the woods of their sleepy Pennsylvania town and a piece of Elle’s past emerges from the wreckage, the truth of her disappearance sets fire to everything Marijohn believes about herself, her music, and her ability to love with abandon.

Wait for Me exalts the lush hills of Appalachia and the bright lights of Nashville as it reveals the legacy of Elle Harlow, the bold voice that defined her, the intimate betrayal that undid her, and the unexpected faith of another young woman determined to resurrect her.

American South / Appalachia, Family Narratives, Fiction, Friendship & Community, Grief & Loss, Performing Arts

Mercury: A Novel

Celadon Books |

January 2, 2024

Women’s Fiction

A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town―from Amy Jo Burns, author of the critically acclaimed novel Shiner

It’s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun.

The Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father’s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family’s survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they’ve always known―or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.

Family Narratives, Fiction, Grief & Loss

Shiner: A Novel

Riverhead Books |

May 5, 2020

Literary Fiction

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY NPR

“Amy Jo Burns writes a version of Appalachia that is one step removed from magic – all strychnine and moonshine and powerful wonder.”—NPR

“[A] wrenching testament, told in language as incandescent as smoldering coal. . . This is not a despairing book, but a hopeful one, of Appalachian women taking back their life stories.” —New York Times Book Review

On a lush mountaintop trapped in time, two women vow to protect each other at all costs-and one young girl must defy her father to survive.

An hour from the closest West Virginia mining town, fifteen-year-old Wren Bird lives in a cloistered mountain cabin with her parents. They have no car, no mailbox, and no visitors-except for her mother’s lifelong best friend. Every Sunday, Wren’s father delivers winding sermons in an abandoned gas station, where he takes up serpents and praises the Lord for his blighted white eye, proof of his divinity and key to the hold he has over the community, over Wren and her mother.

But over the course of one summer, a miracle performed by Wren’s father quickly turns to tragedy. As the order of her world begins to shatter, Wren must uncover the truth of her father’s mysterious legend and her mother’s harrowing history and complex bond with her best friend. And with that newfound knowledge, Wren can imagine a different future for herself than she has been told to expect.

Rich with epic love and epic loss, and diving deep into a world that is often forgotten but still part of America, Shiner reveals the hidden story behind two generations’ worth of Appalachian heartbreak and resolve. Amy Jo Burns brings us a smoldering, taut debut novel about modern female myth-making in a land of men-and one young girl who must ultimately open her eyes.

American South / Appalachia, Family Narratives, Fiction, Friendship & Community

Cinderland: A Memoir

Beacon Press |

October 7, 2014

Memoir

Amy Jo Burns grew up in Mercury, Pennsylvania, an industrial town humbled by the steel collapse of the 1980s. Instead of the construction booms and twelve-hour shifts her parents’ generation had known, the Mercury Amy Jo knew was marred by empty houses, old strip mines, and vacant lots. It wasn’t quite a ghost town—only because many people had no choice but to stay.

The year Burns turned ten, this sleepy town suddenly woke up. Howard Lotte, its beloved piano teacher, was accused of sexually assaulting his female students. Among the countless girls questioned, only seven came forward. For telling the truth, the town ostracized these girls and accused them of trying to smear a good man’s reputation. As for the remaining girls—well, they were smarter. They lied. Burns was one of them.

But such a lie has its own consequences. Against a backdrop of fire and steel, shame and redemption, Burns tells of the boys she ran from and toward, the friends she abandoned, and the endless performances she gave to please a town that never trusted girls in the first place.

This is the story of growing up in a town that both worshipped and sacrificed its youth—a town that believed being a good girl meant being a quiet one—and the long road Burns took toward forgiving her ten-year-old self. Cinderland is an elegy to that young girl’s innocence, as well as a praise song to the curative powers of breaking a long silence.

Memoir & Personal Journeys, Mental Health & Overcoming Trauma, Nonfiction

Five Surprising Lessons on Female Mentorship

Five unexpected and life-affirming lessons learned from Amy Jo’s late mentor, who was incomparably funny, generous, ambitious, and wise.

Beloved Music Duos in Country Music

A lively and heartfelt presentation on the incredible country music partnerships, friendships, and romances that inspired Amy Jo’s novel Wait for Me.

The Story Behind the Story

The story of how Wait for Me came to be, including behind-the-scenes photos of Amy Jo’s personal history and inspiration, her writing process, and her research trip to Nashville, TN.

Roofers, Blue Collar Women, and the Stories They Tell

The real-life stories of the incredible roofers and blue collar women in Western Pennsylvania who inspired the characters in Amy Jo’s novel Mercury.

Moonshine and Taking Up Serpents: A West Virginia Love Story

A celebration of the sacred ways of life in the mountains that are featured in Amy Jo’s novel Shiner.

How to Write a Remarkable Memoir

Essential tips, tricks, and takeaways for writing and revising your memoir.

“I had the great honor and privilege of hosting the book launch for Amy Jo Burns’ beautiful new novel Wait for Me—the March pick for the Read with Jenna book club—here at Princeton Public Library. Our Community Room was standing room only, filled with readers, writers, and book lovers gathered together on a bright March morning that also happened to be International Women’s Day during Women’s History Month…Moments like this are what libraries are all about: bringing people together around stories, ideas, and shared joy.” — Janie Hermann, Princeton Public Library

“We had an absolute blast chatting with Amy Jo Burns…about the craft of writing, our favorite books, and Amy Jo’s brilliant new novel, MERCURY.” — Midtown Scholar

“…incandescent as smoldering coal.” — The New York Times

“Actually, it sounds like Joni Mitchell.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune

Amy Jo’s Events

Amy Jo’s Publications and Interviews

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Read with Jenna Book Club Selection
Barnes & Noble National Book Club Selection
Good Housekeeping Book Club Selection
Barnes & Noble Discover Pick
One of NPR’s Best Books of the Year
Indie Next List
New York Times Editors’ Choice
Book of the Month Selection
Harper’s Bazaar Book Chat Selection
People Magazine Book of the Week
Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club Selection
Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize Finalist
Housatonic Book Award Finalist
Crook’s Corner Book Prize Longlist