ABOUT | #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Joy Jordan-Lake

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About the Author

Joy Jordan-Lake is the bestselling author of eight books, including the #1 Amazon Bestseller A Tangled Mercy and Blue Hole Back Home, which won the Christy Award in 2009 for Best First Novel. Her latest novel Under a Gilded Moon was released on 12.01.20.

She holds a PhD in English Literature, founded a food pantry in New England for women and families experiencing homelessness, and has taught literature and writing at several universities.

Jordan-Lake lives outside of Nashville with her husband and three children.

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Joy Jordan-Lake

"Stories of a past you never knew.
With characters you'll never forget."

Joy Jordan-Lake is the author of the #1 Amazon bestselling novel A Tangled Mercy, a dual timeline story set in Charleston, South Carolina, and the most recent, Under a Gilded Moon, a historical mystery set at the Biltmore Estate in the tumultuous 1890s. Her six earlier books include Blue Hole Back Home, winner of the 2009 Christy Award for Best First Novel, and the Common Book selection for Baylor University, Amarillo College, Belmont University’s Honors College, and other schools.

Joy has also published several works of nonfiction, including an academic text focusing on the narratives, letters, and novels of enslaved women of color and white women of the mid-19th century. She is also the author of two children’s picture books, A Crazy-Much Love and the forthcoming Sir Drake the Brave, which will launch in fall 2021.

Always drawn back to researching and writing historical fiction, she is hard at work revising a cozy mystery set in coastal Maine in the 1950s. Already ensconced in the small fictional town, Joy is hoping this novel will begin a series—if she can tear herself away from the current barrage of political news and remember to write.

Having earned a Ph.D. in English lit from Tufts University in Boston and two earlier masters degrees, Joy still teaches the occasional college class but now writes full time. Having twice been the Writer in Residence for the C.S. Lewis Foundation’s Summer Institute in Cambridge and Oxford, U.K., she enjoys leading workshops and relishes the chance to watch other writers excel.

Joy bases her fiction on historical people and events that have often been forgotten, but that have helped change the course of history. In addition to wanting to tell a good, page-turning tale, she also feels driven to explore ongoing social issues as well as those big existential questions: the human capacity for brutality and bigotry, for example, as well as for remarkable courage and forgiveness.

She and her husband have three children and live just south of Nashville, where a 10-pound Maltipoo rules the house.

Interviews

Interested in conducting an interview with Joy? View our Interview page for previous interviews Joy has been a part of, which include television, audio, and written interviews.

In these interviews, Joy answers questions about why she writes about race, the experiences from her life that have inspired her works, her advice to aspiring writers, and the themes behind her books.

If you want to schedule Joy for an interview, appearance, book club, or an event, virtual or live, please contact her HERE. Additional reviews can be found under Media.

Appearances

Contact Joy

Joy has led writer’s retreats, conferences, workshops, and book clubs. She has also appeared on Panhandle’s PBS station to discuss her novel Blue Hole Back Home, been interviewed for a variety of websites and blogs, and participated in a variety of book signings. If you are interested in contacting Joy about an opportunity, she would be honored to hear from you. Please contact her HERE. To connect with Joy, subscribe to her newsletter and follow her on social media.

Having taught at universities in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and, Tennessee, Joy now focuses primarily on writing—though the occasional class or workshop lures her out of her writing cave.

Residing just south of Nashville, she and her husband relish getting to share life with their three magnificent kids (the oldest of whom is engaged and the second has launched to college), and their magnificent significant others, as well the family’s ferocious ten-pound Maltipoo.

With friends and fellow readers, Joy values the chances to think about stories—in great literature, in contemporary novels, in sacred texts, in creative writing workshops—and consider how stories challenge, disturb, inspire and change the way we see the world.