Emerging Writers Series: Ann Weisgarber

Named Best Work of First Fiction by the Texas Institute of Letters, long-listed for the Orange Prize (alongside Toni Morrison and Marilynne Robinson), and short-listed for the Orange Prize for New Writers, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is an extraordinary debut novel by an American writer, Ann Weisgarber. Recalling The Color Purple and Little House on the Prairie, Weisgarber presents a portrait of a woman who rises above the circumstances keeping her down, while opening a window into the little-known history of African American settlers in the West.

It is 1917 in the South Dakota Badlands, and summer has been hard.  Fourteen years have passed since Rachel and Isaac DuPree left Chicago to redeem the promise of the Homestead Act by staking a claim in this unforgiving land.  But it hasn’t rained in months—the cattle are bellowing with thirst and supplies are dwindling.  Pregnant, and struggling to feed her family, Rachel is determined to give her children the life they deserve, even though she knows that her husband will never leave his ranch.  For Isaac, one of the few black ranchers in the Badlands, land means a measure of equality, and he refuses to surrender his claim even though times are hard.  Rachel must find her own strength to stake another, altogether different claim—for herself, and for her children.

The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is an unforgettable novel about love and loyalty, homeland and belonging.  Above all, it is the story of one woman’s courage in the face of the most punishing adversity.

About the author: Ann Weisgarber was born and raised in Kettering, Ohio.  She was a social worker before earning a master’s degree in sociology at the University of Houston and becoming a teacher.  She divides her time between Sugar Land and Galveston, Texas.