We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kim Michele Richardson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kim Michele , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
The Pack Horse Librarian Project represented one of the most innovative and forward-thinking initiatives of Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. Under the WPA it began as a sole effort to put the poverty-stricken Kentucky women to work in 1935.
As a native-born Kentuckian, all my books are set in my home state. I have a great love for Kentucky. This is my home and these are my people and it’s always humbling when I get to share my stories with the world—and a privilege to honor my history and people. The Kentucky people are intelligent, proud and passionate, oftentimes misunderstood, sometimes persecuted, but in their complicated lives, history and stories, you’ll find a constant. You’ll find dignity.
Our Kentucky women had originally implemented the library project in 1913 with monies donated from local coal baron, John C. Mayo. Unfortunately, a year later it expired after their benefactor passed. However, it would become wildly successful after the Kentucky women revived it through the WPA. It was mostly made up of women who were called ‘Book Woman’ who delivered reading materials, by riding horse or mule on treacherous routes. Little did anyone realize the program would boost education and economic opportunity, raise literacy rates and become a precursor to Johnson’s 1964 War on Poverty and inspire other programs like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
In the 1930s, many Americans suffered from poverty during the Great Depression—but none greater than those in eastern Kentucky. Coal miners were going hungry, being exploited and overworked, so they rebelled with violent strikes against coal companies. None of this stopped these fearless librarians.
One of the most striking things that stood out to me during my now 10 years researching the Packhorse librarian project was that Roosevelt promised that he would provide employment and pay the poor Kentucky women $28.00 a month to ride those dangerous paths and deliver books, but would not provide any mounts, books or places to house books.
So, our clever librarians rented their mounts, became authors, and began creating scrapbooks for their patrons until they could solicit cast off books from big cities, PTA penny funds and women’s groups. Despite huge obstacles, the beloved library program became a successful educational outreach and an important bridge to education.
For me, valued more than any monies, award or prize, has been the witnessing of great acts of kindness these Kentucky Packhorse librarians are inspiring from my books—from the thousands of letters I’ve received from folks across the U.S. and abroad—letters that informed me that after reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek they were inspired to start book mobiles during the height of the pandemic, and others who wrote they are now buying books for book deserts, and yet more who are donating regularly to food banks, and those who raise money for underserved libraries, and more.
Just a few months ago seven Appellant and Supreme court judges from out of state contacted me to ask to help after reading Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. This latest act of kindness brought me to tears. They drove several hours to donate 250 new books to my two Little Free Libraries located inside the Jefferson County Judicial Center. Another reader from Ohio brought 240 new books to stock my Little Free Libraries shortly after. Many of my readers have reached out and sent books also.
Kim Michele , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am the New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series as well as six other historical works and a memoir.
This summer I am beginning a literacy project for Kentucky courthouses. Those who pass through the courthouse doors are economically oppressed and suffering great hardships and bleak futures, So to have the gift of being able to choose a new book for themselves or a child is priceless. This is how books change lives. This is the power of books. My summer project is focused on installing Kentucky Book Woman Little Free Libraries in all the 120 county courthouses across Kentucky, I hope this will inspire other states to follow and the initiative will spread and foster literacy and empower the underserved.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I grew up under the grinding heels of poverty, spending my first decade in a rural Kentucky orphanage, onto foster care, to being homeless as a teen and enduring other sufferings; so it’s not hard for me to feel pain deeply and understand the sufferings of others, I can relate easily to the Kentucky Packhorse Librarians and the people of eastern Kentucky in my novels who faced so much adversity and hardships.
As a young adult and even older one, I could not afford tuition to get an MFA or attend expensive writing classes. I was always fighting to just survive. I’ve always considered myself a ‘Kitchen Table’ author who tells you a story across her kitchen table authentically and lyrically. It took a dear friend and author G.J. Berger and my Writers House literary agents Stacy Testa and Susan Ginsburg to convince me otherwise after I declared to them that they would only get one book from me and no more.
They believed in me and gently nudged me to write another book – then another and another after that. Never did I dream that The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek would also inspire and resonate with so many around the world, and that Dolly Parton would be inspired to select it as her favorite book of the year in People Magazine and then reach out to me with another gift we hope to share with the world soon.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
It’s simple; my book has inspired kindness and great acts of kindness. There is no greater praise for any artist or author. When I wrote The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek’s ending page, I had only hope in mind; to drop seeds of kindness, courage and compassion into a charged and tumultuous world.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kimmichelerichardson.com
- Instagram: @kimmichelerichardson
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimMicheleRichardson
- Twitter: @KimMichele_
Image Credits
Leigh Photography