The National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Reads initiative supports more than 1,600 dynamic community reading programs that have been attended by over 5.7 million Americans. The NEA is now accepting grant applications for 2021 Big Read, so this is a perfect time to pick the next book to share with your community. These PRHSB authors are all current selections in the NEA Big Reads library and have brought communities around the country together through thought-provoking discussions sparked by great books.
2022-2023
Charles Yu
National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown
Yaa Gyasi
Author of Homegoing and recipient of the National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ award
Tommy Orange
Bestselling novelist and author of There There
Tommy Orange is the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist and NEA Big Read selection There There, a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story that introduces readers to a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. Orange’s exceptional debut novel shows us violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. In dynamic and frank in-conversation programs, Orange talks about his craft, the writing process, and Native American history and culture.