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Author Nicki Jacobsmeyer will be at the library with copies of her new book "Kentucky's Packhorse Librarians" on Friday, May 16th from 4:30-5:30!
Nicki Jacobsmeyer writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. She has a forthcoming nonfiction middle grade book, The Ghostly Tales of St. Charles (Arcadia Children’s Books, September 2025), and several other books including, Kentucky’s Packhorse Librarians (Arcadia Publishing, 2025), Surviving the Iditarod, You Choose: Surviving Extreme Sports (Capstone Press, 2017), and Images of America: Chesterfield (Arcadia Publishing, 2016). She is represented by Senior Agent Heather Cashman of Storm Literary.
She is the Co-Host and Partner of the Way-Word Writers Podcast, a community that supports and encourages established writers. Nicki is a PBParty Annual Contest Honorable Mention winner among 1100 entries (April 2024), the 3rd place winner of the Institute of Children’s Literature Narrative Nonfiction Picture Book Contest (December 2023), and honor recipient of the 2021 SCBWI Works of Outstanding Promise (WOOP) Grant.
Besides reading and writing she loves to travel, knit, the outdoors, sunsets, family barbeques and watching a storm come in from her front porch.
More about Kentucky's Packhorse Librarians:
Making the ridgelines and hearts of the Appalachians during the Great Depression, packhorse librarians delivered hope, one book at a time. When the Great Depression started, folks stumbled on hard times. Many lost their jobs and homes, and they struggled to support their families. But people craved hope for the future, and hope arrived with the packhorse librarians through President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933. Each week, children, families, and schoolhouses celebrated when their packhorse librarian arrived at their doors with books. After being handled by many cherished hands, reading materials needed to be taken out of circulation. The librarians constructed scrapbooks and filled them with beloved items-recipes, quilt patterns, pictures, and stories. Challenges awaited the librarians at every pass. From muddy creeks to snow hillsides, the packhorse librarians delivered books and hope to their patrons. Although the program ended in 1943, the lasting effects on literacy and the communities these packhorse librarians visited can still be seen today.
