“Julie Carrick Dalton’s deftly constructed, urgent yet slow-burning debut novel reads like a warning from the frontlines of our rapidly deteriorating natural world.” — Omar El Akkad, author of American War

Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of The Last Beekeeper, longlisted for the 2024 Massachusetts Book Award, and Waiting for the Night Song, winner of the New Hampshire Writer’s Project 2023 People’s Choice Award for Best Novel, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and a Most Anticipated novel by CNN, USA Today, Parade and Newsweek. A former journalist, farmer, and beekeeper, she is a frequent speaker on the topic of fiction in the age of climate crisis at universities, museums, and conferences nationally and internationally. Julie serves on the teaching faculty of Drexel University’s MFA in creative writing program and teaches Climate Fiction at Tufts University. Her third novel, The Forest Becomes Her, will be published in early 2026.

 

Julie's Featured Titles

The Last Beekeeper

Forge Books |
Fiction

Julie Carrick Dalton’s The Last Beekeeper is a celebration of found family, an exploration of truth versus power, and the triumph of hope in the face of despair.

“Fans of Delia Owens will swoon to find their new favorite author.” (Hank Phillippi Ryan)

It’s been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind—find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated.

There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as a way to escape the horrific conditions of state housing. While she feels threatened by their presence at first, the friends soon become her newfound family, offering what she hasn’t felt since her father was imprisoned: security and hope. Maybe it’s time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future.

But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honeybee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn’t understand, but she can’t shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father’s missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha’s fragile security and threaten the lives of her new-found family—or it could save them all.

Sasha’s journey is a meditation on forgiveness and redemption and a reminder to cherish the beauty that still exists in this fragile world.

Also by Julie Carrick Dalton:
Waiting for the Night Song

Waiting for the Night Song

Forge Books |
Fiction

Named a Most Anticipated book by Newsweek * USA Today * CNN * Parade * Buzzfeed * Medium * GoodReads * PopSugar * Frolic Media * Betches * The Nerd Daily * SheReads and more

“Smart and searingly passionate…an illuminating snapshot of nature, betrayal, and sacrifices set in the evocative New Hampshire wilderness.”–Kim Michele Richardson, bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

A startling and timely debut, Julie Carrick Dalton’s Waiting for the Night Song is a moving, brilliant novel about friendships forged in childhood magic and ruptured by the high price of secrets that leave you forever changed.

Cadie Kessler has spent decades trying to cover up one truth. One moment. But deep down, didn’t she always know her secret would surface?

An urgent message from her long-estranged best friend Daniela Garcia brings Cadie, now a forestry researcher, back to her childhood home. There, Cadie and Daniela are forced to face a dark secret that ended both their idyllic childhood bond and the magical summer that takes up more space in Cadie’s memory then all her other years combined.

Now grown up, bound by long-held oaths, and faced with truths she does not wish to see, Cadie must decide what she is willing to sacrifice to protect the people and the forest she loves, as drought, foreclosures, and wildfire spark tensions between displaced migrant farm workers and locals.

Waiting for the Night Song is a love song to the natural beauty around us, a call to fight for what we believe in, and a reminder that the truth will always rise.

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Coming soon!

Norwich Bookstore Presents Julie Carrick Dalton discussing Waiting for the Nightsong with Robin MacArthur

Rachael Barenbaum’s Debut Spotlight with Julie Carrick Dalton

Book Chat: Julie Carrick Dalton discusses her new novel with Barbara Peters

Julie Carrick Daltons’ debut novel, Waiting for the Night Song, was hailed as one of the most anticipated books of 2021 by Newsweek, USA Today, CNN, Buzzfeed and more. Join us as we talk about this beautiful book that combines page-turning mystery with a serious passion for the environment. Learn how tending to her own organic farm intersected with –and informed–the writing of her novel and how Julie’s passion for the environment will hopefully be driving her writing for years to come.

Julie’s Events

Julie’s Other Writing

Honors, Awards & Recognition

Longlisted for the 2024 Massachusetts Book Award
Winner of the New Hampshire Writer’s Project 2023 People’s Choice Award for Best Novel
Amazon Book of the Month Winner
Most Anticipated novel by CNN, USA Today, Parade & Newsweek
William Faulkner Literary Competition Winner
Writers’ League of Texas Award Winner
2016 Writer’s Digest Contest Winner
Caledonia Novel Award Finalist
Claymore Award Finalist
Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature Finalist

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.

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