Aryssa Damron, a librarian in Washington, DC, and the chair of the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence selection committee, had some questions for Roxanna Asgarian, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. Here is their conversation.
Damron: You’ve been a journalist for years, but this is your first full-length book. What was it about this story that urged you to expand your research and tell more?
Asgarian: During the first two years of reporting this story, I published three separate pieces on different aspects of it. But to me, it was all one larger story, and there was so much more to say, which is when it became clear this…
