Program/Grant: NEA Big Read

What happens when a survivalist, a novel, and a small-town library come together? A day of fire-starting, squash-picking, and rediscovering our place in the natural world.

This community-wide reading program offers matching grants of up to $20,000 for programming that uses the theme of "Our Nature" as inspiration.

$1.07 million will support 62 grantees in presenting community literary programming across the country.

SPACE and Mechanic's Hall will host interdisciplinary programming, reading groups, and workshops around Ilya Kaminsky's book of poems Deaf Republic, in conjunction with a variety of community partners. This series will explore themes of community loss, accessibility, silence as resistance, love in the face of violence and war, and artists exploring deafness and tinnitus.

After the positive response and public reception of our 2022 and 2023 NEA Big Read: Lawton events, we are excited to unite the community again through the reading of one book and through the hosting of multiple book discussions, as well as other activities and events inspired by the theme of where we live as depicted by The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui.

The Chattahoochee Valley Libraries join forces with other organizations and our community to celebrate and examine WHERE WE LIVE as this year’s NEA BIG READ celebration. Using Atlanta author Tayari Jones’ celebrated "Silver Sparrow" as our guide, we’ll examine how our time, place, and people have inspired – and can inspire –creative and historical endeavors both great and small.

The Evanston Public Library will celebrate “A Year of Joy and Gratitude” by exploring the themes in Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. In addition to poetry workshops and reading, EPL will curate unique programs, such as gardening, birding, and fabric arts, that encourage active engagement in this poetry and builds greater connections to where we live, our land and nature, and ourselves.

The Bristol Public Library, Washington County Public Library, and Birthplace of Country Music Museum have come together to host community events focused on Ron Rash's Burning Bright. Through these programs, we will foster community connections, expand minds, and provide space for transformative dialogue on the theme of “Where We Live.”

RCCA brings together campus and public audiences for engagement with The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, a novel that resonates with the RCCA community and mission. Activities for English and Spanish-speaking readers includes discussions, lectures, interactive art installation, writing workshops, teaching artist residencies in schools and centers, storytelling with young companion books.

Through The Great Gatsby, we will explore the concept of the American Dream and how the influences of the 1920’s—including jazz music—still impact our lives today. In today’s world of ever-growing economic disparity, the book will allow us to reflect how wealth and the pursuit of happiness are interpreted in our Vermont community, which includes multi-generational families and new residents.