Program/Grant: NEA Big Read

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in partnership with Arts Midwest, is pleased to announce grants to 62 nonprofit organizations to hold NEA Big Read programming in 2023-2024.

Applications are now open for our two national grants programs: the NEA Big Read and Shakespeare in American Communities.

Using Joy Harjo’s poetry collection An American Sunrise as a starting point, Long Island community members dove into activities exploring Indigenous culture, oppression, race, colonization, and displacement. From readings performed by inmates at the Suffolk County Jail, to having author Joy Harjo visit Shinnecock Nation’s sovereign land, here’s how the NEA Big Read Long Island was able to create civic conversations by bringing poetry into the heart of community.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in partnership with Arts Midwest, is announcing support for 62 nonprofit organizations to hold NEA Big Read programming in 2022-2023.

Lake Superior State University (LSSU) is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where five Native nations are located. In 2020 and 2021, LSSU staff, students, and community members dug deeper into the area’s Native American culture and history through a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant. Louise Erdrich’s award-winning novel The Round House inspired impactful discussions, book talks, writing workshops, and performances.

Iowa City, Iowa is a bookish town. The first American UNESCO City of Literature, it is known for extensive University writing programs, a famous bookstore, Prairie Lights, and a community of open-minded literature lovers. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program, which aims to expose people to new ideas through works of literature and community conversations, is right at home here. But alongside Iowa City’s internationally renowned literary enclaves are less visible communities with important stories to tell.

How a book about the humorous and difficult parts of aging connected Ohio residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before I arrived in Locust Grove, Oklahoma, I knew this small town of less than 1,500 was rich in one particular thing: creativity. I was visiting to experience the final events of their NEA Big Read, to meet the organizers, to gauge how the program added to the creative economy, and see how it afforded the residents some new and unique creative opportunities.

Universidad Ana G. Méndez hosted an NEA Big Read featuring Julia Alvarez’s novel, In the Time of the Butterflies. Through conversations and events with the author, the community of Gurabo, Puerto Rico heard reflections on Alvarez’s, the craft of storytelling, and the importance of literature in building compassion.