A Michigan library that town residents voted to defund because it stocked LGBTQ+ books will be able to keep its doors open, thanks in part to bestselling novelist Nora Roberts.
The romance author donated $50,000 to the library, saving it—at least temporarily—from closing, Bridge Michigan reports.
The Patmos Library in Jamestown Township, Michigan, faced an uncertain future after voters in the town declined to renew millage—a term referring to property tax revenue—in an election earlier this month.
Conservatives in the town were upset that the library refused to remove from its shelves LGBTQ+ books including Tillie Walden’s Spinning, Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw’s Kiss Number 8, and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer.
The results of the vote drew national headlines and spawned a pair of fundraisers which aimed to replace the money that the library would have received through the millage. The fundraising campaigns raised almost $250,000 for the library, $50,000 of which was donated by Roberts, the prolific author of such novels as Chasing Fire, The Obsession, and The Choice.
Roberts donated the maximum amount that GoFundMe would allow, but wrote that she would donate more if the library needed it.
The novelist told Bridge Michigan that she believes libraries are “treasures.”
“Librarians, to me, are the guardians of…stories,” she said. “I find the idea of librarians—who offer community services beyond reading—facing threats and attacks, a community library facing defunding both appalling and sad. It’s an honor for me to stand up for the Patmos Library and its staff.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
