Sumter County will be one of six dozen communities to participate in a national program to promote literary reading.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) on Oct. 31 announced in a news release that 72 organizations will receive grants to support Big Read programs between January and June 2007.
Participating communities, ranging in population from 7,000 to more than 4 million, will read and celebrate one of eight classic American novels: "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, "My Antonia" by Willa Cather, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, or "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan. The Sumter County Library will feature “Fahrenheit 451.”
The Big Read is a new national program by the NEA, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Arts Midwest, that encourages literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book. The organizations selected to participate in the Big Read will receive grants ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 to promote and carry out monthlong, community-based programs.
After executing a successful pilot Big Read program with 10 communities in 2006, the Arts Endowment announced in May that it would take the Big Read nationwide.
Modeled on successful "city reads" programs, the Big Read is meant to address the national decline in literary reading as documented in the NEA's 2004 landmark survey Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. The survey showed that less than half the American adult population now reads literature.
In addition to direct grants, the NEA also will provide participating communities with a library of free materials, including reader's and teacher's guides for each of the Big Read novels, an audio guide for each novel featuring distinguished actors and writers, an online
organizer's guide for hosting a Big Read program, a customized television public service announcement, Big Read display materials, and a comprehensive program Web site. The Boeing Company will support the Big Read in communities with a military base.
The Arts Endowment will award a second round of Big Read grants for the second half of 2007 to support programs running from September to December 2007. Four additional novels will be available to those communities: "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya, "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers, and "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton.
See the complete list of grantees at www.imls.gov/news/2006/103106_list.shtm.
For more information on the Big Read, visit www.neabigread.org.
