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.

[8] 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.

[9] In April 2011, after an extensive debate that prompted officials' review of the city's policies regarding urban farming,[10] 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.

[12] A memoir, Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild, released on June 12, 2014, also by Penguin Press,[13][14] was selected as a Library Journal Best Book of 2014 and a Northern California Book Award Nominee for Best Creative Nonfiction of 2014.