The National Endowment for the Arts is now accepting applications for the 2017-2018 NEA Big Read, and we’re excited to announce that books from six of our speakers are featured in the NEA Big Read Library!
The online application process is now open for community reading programs.
The NEA Big Read program provides grants that allow for the creation of 75 dynamic community reads programs, each designed around a single NEA Big Read selection. The initiative encourages reading, inspires conversations, and creates spaces in communities to explore relevant issues. Find out more about how you can participate here.
We invite you to consider one of these phenomenal books from our speakers for your community NEA Big Read!
Selections from the NEA Big Read Library
Brother, I'm Dying - Edwidge Danticat
“Remarkable. . . . A fierce, haunting book about exile and loss and family love.” —The New York Times
Edwidge Danticat
MacArthur Fellow and critically acclaimed Haitian-American writer
Pretty Monsters - Kelly Link
“… fantastic, in both the literal and colloquial sense of the term, and though written for young adults, are every bit as evocative for adult readers.” —The Boston Globe
Kelly Link
MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow, writer of celebrated short stories and The Book of Love
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
“A superb novel . . . [that] leaves us not fearful for the end of the word but appreciative of the grace of everyday existence.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Emily St. John Mandel
Author of 2014 National Book Award finalist Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears - Dinaw Mengestu
“… there’s something hugely hopeful about [Mengestu’s] watchful honesty and egalitarian tenderness. This is a great African novel, a great Washington novel and a great American novel.” —The New York Times
Dinaw Mengestu
Named one of The New Yorker "20 Under 40" writers to watch and author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and How to Read the Air
Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng
“[A] cleverly crafted, emotionally perceptive debut … Ng’s themes of assimilation are themselves deftly interlaced into a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense.” —O Magazine
Celeste Ng
Author of the New York Times bestseller Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere