Interview: Julie Carrick Dalton, Author of “Waiting for the Night Song”

Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of the award-winning novel Waiting for the Night Song. In this interview, we discuss the climate change themes in her book.

A photo of author Julie Carrick Dalton beside her novel Waiting for the Night Song.

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One February morning, I jumped on a Zoom call to interview Julie Carrick Dalton, author of the popular new novel Waiting for the Night Song. Julie spoke with me from New England, where she works as a journalist and runs a small organic farm with her husband. Waiting for the Night Song is Julie’s debut novel, and we talk all about it, covering topics like climate refugees, increasing forest fires, and the friction that can occur between science and government.

Since its publication, Waiting for the Night Song has won multiple awards, been selected as an Amazon editor’s pick, and garnered praise from acclaimed cli-fi author Omar El Akkad and Amy Brady, executive director of Orion Magazine and author of the column “Burning Worlds” in the Chicago Review of Books. It was an honor getting to talk to Julie, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

“Waiting for the Night Song” by Julie Carrick Dalton

Official book cover for Waiting for the Night Song by Julie Carrick Dalton.

About the author

Photo of author Julie Carrick Dalton.

Julie Carrick Dalton grew up in Maryland and on a military base in Germany. As an adult, she bounced around from Seattle to Dallas to Virginia, before finding her true home in Boston, where she has lived for more than twenty years. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, Electric Literature, and other publications. She contributes to The Chicago Review of Books, DeadDarlings, and The Writer Unboxed. A Tin House alum and graduate of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator, Julie holds a Master’s in Literature and Creative Writing from Harvard Extension School. She is a frequent speaker on the topic of writing fiction in the age of climate crisis. Mom to four kids and two dogs, Julie is a passionate skier, hiker, and kayaker. She also owns and operates an organic farm. Please excuse her dirty fingernails.

– “Bio,” Julie Carrick Dalton official website

What you can do to help

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Website: https://www.nrdc.org/
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– “About Us,” NRDC official site

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