Dear Librarians, You’re the heroes of Mother Daughter Traitor Spy, my first stand-alone novel. Without you, it simply wouldn’t exist. Let me explain. First, I wouldn’t and couldn’t have written a single book without librarians and without libraries. My hometown library—and one librarian in particular—nurtured my love of books and reading. I remember her putting a copy […]
Dearest Librarians, It was an intergalactic star cruiser. A massive feat of human engineering with impossibly tall ceilings promising a lifetime of adventures. Just by stepping inside, one was instantly transported to alien planets. My hometown library is etched into my brain as this otherworldly vessel, forever seen through the eyes of a four-year-old falling […]
Continue reading "A Letter to Librarians from Katelyn Monroe Howes"
Dear Librarians, Living in New York, trying to write a novel, the library become my sacred space. In the mornings, I would pack my bookbag like I was going to the office and set off for the soothing hum of the library. Since I was young, I’ve been drawn to the library’s atmosphere. The sweet, […]
Dear Librarians, Like most lucky childhoods, mine was spent reading. Mostly this was because I enjoyed it but also, it was the only thing to do: my parents worked constantly, and as expatriate Americans doing business abroad, they believed that all meetings should take place in bistros. However, English language books were not as easy […]
Dear Librarians: You may not know the extent of your impact on someone when you make a reading recommendation or offer encouragement, but I am here to tell you that the librarians I’ve met throughout the years changed my life. An avid reader and writer since childhood, I spent many cherished hours at my local […]
Dear Librarians, My People, I owe you everything. I learned how to read in a library because I spent every Saturday morning there, usually by myself. Every Saturday morning, my father would announce that he needed to go to the barber’s. But since he was bald from the time I was born, I think what […]
I’m grateful to libraries, which have meant so much to me, in my development as a person and as a writer. I’m the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants, and as a girl, I often felt torn between worlds. For me, books provided the explanations that my parents could not. I’d spend all afternoon at the […]
Like most writers, I’ve always been obsessed with libraries. My obsession extended to me earning a master’s degree in library science, publishing an article about zine collections in Public Libraries magazine, starting a zine archive at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and volunteering both at the library on Alcatraz(!) and my local […]
