NEA Big Read

An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of ourselves and our neighbors through the power of a shared reading experience.

The goals of the NEA Big Read are to inspire meaningful conversations, celebrate local creativity, elevate a wide variety of voices and perspectives, and build stronger connections in each community.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.
cover of catalog of unabashed gratitude by ross gay

Ross Gay – Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude is a sustained meditation on that which goes away—loved ones, the seasons, the earth as we know it—that tries to find solace in the processes of the garden and the orchard. That is, this is a book that studies the wisdom of the garden and orchard, those places where all—death, sorrow, loss—is converted into what might, with patience, nourish us.

“I’m bowled over by how Ross Gay reaches again and again toward stating what’s beautiful, what’s sweet, what’s most emotionally moving to him: he is genuinely ‘unabashed.’ He is definitely interested in the sentimental, but the poems don’t feel remotely treacly to me. They feel bold and wild and weird.” — American Poetry Review

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude Giveaway

The first 100 people to arrive at Gay’s program on April 10 will receive free copies of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Additionally, we will be giving away copies of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay throughout the month of April at all the scheduled Big Read events as well as in CALS branches while supplies last.

Big Read Events