Ann Weisgarber: 'We need to keep our libraries open.'

In this interview, author Ann Weisgarber shares her love of libraries.

This is expressed most strongly in her views on library budget cuts.

She mentioned a library in Houston where hours were cut, preventing her from meeting with her writing critique group. 

She said, "It's a far bigger issue than just our little group having a place to meet. It's the people in the libraries who come there for computer services, it's people who are unemployed who will sit and read the newspapers, read the magazines.

"I think, of all times, when the economy is tough, we need to keep our libraries open. It is just crushing me to see this happen."

Weisgarber's debut novel, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, was nominated for England's Orange Prize and for England's Orange Award for New Writers. In the United States, it won the Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction, the Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction, and is currently shortlisted for the Ohioana Book Award. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers book and an Indie Next List Great Read.

According to Weisgarber's website, "Inspired by a cookstove in a South Dakota sod dugout and by the photograph of an unnamed woman, Ann spent seven years writing The Personal History of Rachel DuPree. She learned the basics of fiction writing by attending evening workshops at Inprint in Houston. She submitted the first chapter of her manuscript to the National Park Service and received a four-week writing residency at Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

"Ann was born and raised in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. After graduating from Wright State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work, she was a social worker in a psychiatric hospital. She moved to Houston and attended the University of Houston where she earned a Masters of Arts in Sociology. She taught sociology at several community colleges in the Houston area. In addition to Ohio and Texas, Ann has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Des Moines, Iowa. She now splits her time between Sugar Land, Texas, and Galveston, Texas. She and her husband, Rob, are admirers of America's national parks and try to visit a park each year. Ann is working on her next novel that takes place in Galveston during the historic hurricane of 1900."