She is the author or co-author of eleven books,[3] beginning in 1993 with the oral history Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, a New York Times bestseller for 117 weeks, according to its archives.

[5] Departing from her non-fiction work, Hearth wrote her first novel, Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society, in 2011.

[8] Hearth's tenth book, published January 2, 2018, is Streetcar to Justice: How Elizabeth Jennings Won the Right to Ride in New York.

[9] Hearth's most recent work is her first historical thriller, Silent Came the Monster: A Novel of the 1916 Jersey Shore Shark Attacks, published May 16, 2023.

I had to convince them and gave this little impromptu speech - that I thought it was very important that people from their generation be represented, especially black women who hadn't had much opportunity.

"[14] The Dallas Morning News, in its review of Having Our Say, wrote that Hearth: "worked carefully to preserve the speech patterns and personalities of each sister in the text so the stories unfold as complementary harmonies of the same melody.

In the 2009 Contemporary Authors feature on Hearth's career, she explained her writing process: To me, the first step in the creation of an oral history is developing a relationship of trust with my subject.

Then it is a matter of complete immersion in my subject's world, listening with an almost otherworldly intensity, asking the perfect questions, and being extremely sensitive to the nuances of what the person is telling me.

"[21] However, Hearth's oral history books also feature passages written in her own voice that are intended to provide historical and cultural context.

"[23] An essay by Hearth on the Delany Sisters was commissioned for inclusion in the anthology, North Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times (Fall 2012, University of Georgia Press).

[24] Her first work of fiction, Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society, was published by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, in October 2012.

The books are loosely based on Hearth's late mother-in-law and her difficulties fitting in and adapting to Naples, Fla., then a sleepy Southern backwater, when the family moved from Boston in 1962.

"[25] Hearth, along with the producers, won a Peabody Award for "Significant and Meritorious Achievement in Broadcasting and Cable" for Having Our Say, the film adaptation of her book.

Hearth won the Inaugural Septima Clark "Women in Literature" Award in 2019 from the National Council for the Social Studies for her book, Streetcar to Justice.

The annual award recognizes a "notable, high-quality trade book that centers on the challenges and accomplishments of women, both in the United States and internationally.

Strong Medicine Speaks: A Native American Elder Has Her Say was selected for a Cumberland County, New Jersey group read.

[32] In 1993, Hearth received the Gwen and C. Dale White Award "for introducing the Delany Sisters to a world audience" from the New York Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action.