Julie Carrick Dalton’s climate awakening began on her own farmland. While building an organic farm on cleared land in New Hampshire, she discovered that the local growing season had stretched by 22 days over the past century, driven by a four-degree temperature rise far steeper than the rest of the continental U.S. That discovery shaped everything she has written since.
Julie is the author of Waiting for the Night Song and The Last Beekeeper. Her third novel, The Forest Becomes Her, arrives this month from St. Martin’s Press. She spent fifteen years running an organic farm in New Hampshire, kept bees before reconsidering what responsible beekeeping actually requires, and now teaches creative writing at Drexel’s MFA program after building a climate fiction course from scratch at Tufts.
In this conversation, Addie and Julie discuss Julie’s path from journalist to farmer to novelist, what climate fiction can accomplish that a report cannot, and the personal grief and unexpected climate solution behind her new book.
We talk about:
Julie’s climate awakening, beginning with a discovery on her own farmland in New Hampshire.
Her journey from from journalism to organic farming to fiction.
Her new novel, The Forest Becomes Her, and her its three main characters, all connected to a clear-cut old-growth forest.
Why climate fiction works as a Trojan horse for empathy, even with readers who reject climate change.
A climate solution that is a new one on the pod!
Links:
The Forest Becomes Her — pre-order, coming July 2026 from St. Martin’s Press, or wherever books are sold.
Julie’s Substack: juliesplottwist.substack.com
Julie’s website: juliecarrickdalton.com
Julie on Instagram: @juliecdalton
Transcend / Tree Burial — the green burial company mentioned in the episode
Keywords: climate fiction, land back, New Hampshire, farming, Indigenous stewardship, Alaska, pollinators, regenerative farming, climate grief, climate communication
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