About Carla Damron

Carla Damron is an award-winning author, social worker, and advocate whose novel The Stone Necklace (about grief and addiction) won the 2017 Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award for Best Novel and was selected as the One Community Read for Columbia, SC. Damron is also the author of the Caleb Knowles mystery series, award-winning crime fiction novels, and numerous short stories, essays, and op-eds.

Damron holds an MSW and an MFA. Her careers as a social worker and writer are intricately intertwined; her award-winning novels explore social issues such as addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and social justice. Damron works part-time with Communities in Schools and volunteers with the League of Women Voters, Sisters in Crime–Palmetto Chapter (President), and Mutual Aid Midlands.

In her award-winning crime fiction novel, The Orchid Tattoo, Damron uses mystery and suspense to delve into the complex topic of human trafficking, a horrific crime affecting thousands of victims around the world and in her native South Carolina. Through compelling storytelling and memorable characters, she hopes the novel will both entertain and educate readers while shining a light on important social issues.

A South Carolina native, Damron was born in Sumter and currently lives outside Columbia with her husband, Jim Hussey, and their blended family of assorted animals.