Jetta Carleton (March 23 1913 – August 19 1992) was an American novelist and short‑story writer. She is best known for her debut novel, The Moonflower Vine, published in 1962, which received critical acclaim and achieved bestseller status in the United States. The novel, set in a small Arkansas town, explores themes of family, community, and personal ambition, and has remained in print through multiple reissues.
Carleton’s literary output also includes a collection of short stories that appeared in various mid‑20th‑century magazines, though no additional novels were published under her name. She was active in literary circles during the 1960s and contributed to discussions on Southern regional writing.
Born in the United States, Carleton spent much of her adult life in the Southern region, which informed the settings and cultural context of her fiction. She died in 1992, leaving behind a modest body of work that continues to be cited in studies of American Southern literature.