LITTLE ROCK—Bestselling author Kim Michele Richardson’s novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2019), has been selected for the 2020 If All Arkansas Read the Same Book community-read project. The novel’s background is the Works Progress Administration Pack Horse Library initiative in Kentucky during the Great Depression, and the book has been popular since its publication with book club readers around the state and country. The author will be speaking in various
Arkansas library venues on July 17 and 18, 2020, including Hempstead County Library; South Arkansas Community College Library; Cabot Public Library; and the Ron Robinson Theater, Central Arkansas Library System.

Ms. Richardson is an award-winning author of four works of historical fiction and a bestselling memoir, The Unbreakable Child. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has been recognized with a LibraryReads Best Book award, Forbes Best Historical Novel, Books-A-Million Best Fiction, and is an Oprah’s Buzziest Books pick as well as a Women’s National Book Association Great Group Reads selection. According to the author: “My latest novel … delves into the Pack Horse Library Project of 1935 and the factual blue
people of eastern Kentucky. It’s a fascinating story, one I feel privileged to write—a tale of tribute to the fearsome librarians who traveled on horseback and mule to provide books to the poor and isolated communities in Kentucky.” The novel resonates with a moving and vivid focus on how books, reading and libraries can change lives.

Ms. Richardson lives in Kentucky and is an advocate for the prevention of child and domestic abuse, as well as a book critic for The New York Journal of Books, and the founder of the Shy Rabbit writing residency scholarship. Her other novels include Liar’s Bench, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field and The Sisters of Glass Ferry. More information about the author, her books and Shy Rabbit can be found on www.kimmichelerichardson.com.

If All Arkansas Read the Same Book is presented by the Arkansas Center for the Book at the Arkansas State Library, which is a division of the Arkansas Department of Education. All programs are offered freeof-charge to the public. This project is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Copies of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek will be available at all public libraries throughout the state.