Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid makes huge donation to struggling rural libraries
Rachel Reid attends the premiere of Heated Rivalry in Toronto, Ontario. (Getty)
Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid is putting some of her success toward saving the public libraries that helped inspire her career.
The Nova Scotia author has donated $300,000 to the Annapolis Valley Regional Library after learning that five rural branches (Hantsport, Kentville, Lawrencetown, Port Williams, and Middleton) were facing permanent closure due to funding shortfalls.
The library had previously used $80,000 of its reserve funds to keep the five branches open through 30 September, after municipalities fell more than $200,000 short of the additional funding requested to keep them operating through the 2026–27 fiscal year. Reid’s donation is now one of the largest private gifts in the library system’s history.
“I had to do it because I don’t know what the point is of being a successful author in Nova Scotia if you’re not going to use it for good,” Reid told CBC News in a 17 August interview.
For Reid, the cause is deeply personal. She grew up in Bedford, Nova Scotia, where she spent countless hours at her local library, taking out as many books as she could and eventually discovering the romance novels that would help shape her own career as a writer.
“I don’t think I’d be an author without my local library,” she said.
But Reid, who created the Game Changers novel series, says libraries offer communities far more than free access to books. She remembers using hers as a meeting place, bringing her children to programs and connecting with other parents. She believes these experiences demonstrate why libraries are an “essential service that needs to be properly funded”.
The donation will help the Annapolis Valley Regional Library continue serving communities across the region. However, the library stressed that private donations cannot replace the need for stable public funding from governments, with which Reid agrees.
“I want to do what I can to help, but I also think private donations can’t replace government policy which is where this funding should be coming from,” she said. “But I also feel like if you are able to help you should.”
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