Dahlonega
Literary Festival
An Annual Celebration of Readers, Writers, and Books
Melissa Norton Carro
A native southerner, Melissa Norton Carro has over twenty years of experience in marketing and communications, including her own business, Norton Carro Communications. She has edited textbooks and been a non-fiction ghostwriter, as well as a regular copyeditor for Gannett Publishing. She received her Bachelor of Arts, with Honors, from Vanderbilt University, where she is currently the Assistant Dean for Clinical Placement in the School of Nursing. Melissa was a closet fiction writer for years while raising three daughters, and Mt. Moriah’s Wake is her first novel. She writes a weekly blog, In the Middle, about life in the sandwich generation and is currently working on another novel. She lives in Nashville with her husband and blue heeler mutt.
Mt. Moriah's Wake
Mt. Moriah's Wake will resonate with readers who grew up in small Southern towns. Orphaned at age eight, JoAnna Wilson was raised by her eccentric aunt in the bucolic southern community of Mt. Moriah. Now a twenty-six-year-old would-be writer, JoAnna faces several crossroads: in her marriage, in her career, and in her faith. She left home for Chicago in 1997 immediately following the murder of her best friend, Grace. Now she comes back to Mt. Moriah for the first time in four years to attend her aunt’s funeral—and realizes that she must confront both the profound sorrow she feels over Grace’s death and the mysterious guilt she carries. She must finally grieve.
A hauntingly sweet story of love and loss that alternates between JoAnna’s childhood in Mt. Moriah, her life in Chicago and her present encounters upon returning home, Mt. Moriah’s Wake ponders deep questions: When we experience unspeakable tragedy, do we see ourselves as victim or survivor? Is it possible to regain happiness in the face of such? And how do we find our faith again, once it is lost?
As her past and present worlds collide, JoAnna grapples with these questions—and her journey moves toward an unexpected conclusion.