Author Entertainment Series – Carolyn Curry

Trudy’s Awakening: A Novel

Trudy’s Awakening is a historical novel set in the latter half of nineteenth-century Georgia that tells the story of three women whose lives were intermingled as they worked to overcome society’s barriers to their progress and success. Gertrude Thomas, “Trudy” to her friends and family, grew up in wealth and privilege but lost it all in the aftermath of the war. Amanda “Mae,” along with her mother Lurany, were enslaved to Gertrude’s family and yearned for freedom. Lizzie Jeter was a middle-class young woman who dreamed of being a professional artist. All three faced tremendous obstacles in a world that wished to limit and suppress their talents. Carolyn Curry uses her own research from the award-winning biography, Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Claton Thomas, 1834-1907, to imagine the way these women’s different paths crossed in their fight for freedom, civil rights, and successful careers. As their lives intersect, they form close bonds and become friends. While their talents are unique, they share a common experience: they are survivors determined to make life better for themselves and other women. Readers will encounter the history of Atlanta and Georgia in the difficult years after the Civil War and learn how women coped and succeeded in that changing world. “More than anything,” Curry says, “I want women to know that when bad things happen, and they always do, they can find a way through to a better place with their love and commitment to one another.”

“In a society and era when women were afforded no voice, Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas found hers and, in the fullness of time, raised it in support of other women,” says Marie Bostwick, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty works of contemporary and historical fiction, including The Book Club for Troublesome Women. “Carolyn Newton Curry’s inspiring and highly readable novel tells the little-known story of ordinary Southern women who endure tragedy, turmoil, and loss, yet find strength and courage to carve out new lives for themselves in a fast-changing world.”

Meet The Author

Carolyn Curry is an award-winning author, historian, and founder of the non-profit Women Alone Together®. She holds BA from Agnes Scott College, and an MA and PhD from Georgia State University. In 2014, her book, Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas 1834-1907, was selected as One of the Books all Georgians Should Read by the Georgia Center for the Book. In 2014 she received Georgia Author of the Year from the Georgia Writers Association. In 2022, she published Sudden Death, her first novel and murder mystery and in 2025, she published yet another genre, historical fiction Trudy’s Awakening.