Novella Carpenter

Who is Novella Carpenter?

Novella Carpenter is the author of the 2009 memoir Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. The book describes her extensive garden in Ghost Town, a run-down neighborhood about a mile from downtown Oakland, California. Farm City was listed by some reviewers as one of the top books of 2009.

Carpenter studied biology and English at the University of Washington and graduated from the School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley where she studied with Michael Pollan. She has written for Mother Jones, Salon and SF Gate. She is also the co-author of Don't Jump! The Northwest Winter Blues Survival Guide, published in 2002 by Sasquatch Books. In March 2011, the City of Oakland told Carpenter she would have to close her Ghost Town Farm because she was selling excess produce without a permit. In April 2011, after an extensive debate that prompted officials' review of the city's policies regarding urban farming, Carpenter was granted a Minor Conditional Use Permit for her 4,500-square-foot urban residential plot, allowing her to keep more than 40 animals, including ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigs, and goats.

Carpenter's "how-to" guide for urban farmers, The Essential Urban Farmer, co-authored with Willow Rosenthal, was released by Penguin Press on December 27, 2011. A new memoir, Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild Hardcover, will be released on June 12, 2014, also by Penguin Press.