NEA Big Read: CALS

NEA Big Read: CALS Book Club Partners

One of the core elements of the NEA Big Read program is participation by book clubs. According to Arts Midwest, “Studies show that reading for pleasure reduces stress, heightens empathy, improves students’ test scores, slows the onset of dementia, and makes us more active and aware citizens. Book clubs and community reading programs extend these benefits by creating opportunities to explore together the issues that are relevant to our lives.”

As part of the Central Arkansas Library System’s participation in NEA Big Read, three Book Club Kits featuring Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried are currently available and can be ordered at cals.org/book-kits/. We encourage book clubs throughout the CALS service area to read this classic work, and suggested discussion questions are available at www.arts.gov/national-initiatives/nea-big-read/the-things-they-carried.

The Arkansas State Library and the Arkansas Center for the Book are also offering The Things They Carried Book Club Kits, which can be ordered at www.library.arkansas.gov/landing-page/details/book-clubs.

We do request that all book clubs participating in NEA Big Read: CALS let us know so that we can recognize them on our website.

Participating Book Clubs

About NEA Big Read

“The NEA Big Read exposes people to new genres and ideas and challenges their current tastes in literature. And the best part is that people told us that ​at​ our events! They not only read something that they wouldn’t normally have read, but they went out of their way to participate in a community event and learn more about the story, characters, plot and author. It just really shows the community buy-in we have and the hunger communities have for connection with each other.” – the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Library, an NEA Big Read grantee, in a Q&A with Arts Midwest

An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. Showcasing a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, the NEA Big Read aims to inspire conversation and discovery.

Studies show that reading for pleasure reduces stress, heightens empathy, improves students’ test scores, slows the onset of dementia, and makes us more active and aware citizens. Book clubs and community reading programs extend these benefits by creating opportunities to explore together the issues that are relevant to our lives. The titles in the NEA Big Read library vary in genre, theme, settings and points of view: from poems about the loss of a father to a memoir about growing up in a refugee camp to a post-apocalyptic novel about hanging on to our humanity after a flu pandemic. Writes one NEA Big Read participant, echoing the sentiments of many other participants around the country, “the book taught us how to talk to and trust one another so that we could ultimately approach issues that were difficult and immediate.”

NEA Big Read annually supports approximately 75 dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single NEA Big Read selection. Each community program that receives an NEA Big Read grant—which ranges between $5,000 and $15,000—is also provided with resources, outreach materials, and training on various aspects such as working with local partners, developing public relations strategies, and leading book discussions and Q&As. The programs last approximately one month and include a kick-off event, often attended by the mayor and other local luminaries; major events devoted specifically to the book (e.g., panel discussions and author reading); events using the book as a point of departure (e.g., film screenings and theatrical readings); and book discussions in diverse locations involving a wide range of audiences.

Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,400 Big Read programs, providing more than $19 million to organizations nationwide. In addition, Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country. Over the past 12 years, grantees have leveraged more than $44 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 4.9 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 82,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and over 39,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible.