Contact: Susan ColemanVirginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive Charlottesville, VA 22903
PH: 434-982-2983 FAX: 434-296-4714
Email: spcoleman@virgnia.edu
Contact: Susan Coleman
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive Charlottesville, VA 22903
PH: 434-982-2983 FAX: 434-296-4714
Email: spcoleman@virgnia.edu
www.vabook.org
www.virginiafoundation/bookcenter
For Immediate Release
January 18, 2007
The Virginia Foundation Center for the Book is one of 72 organizations nationally to receive a grant to support “The Big Read in Virginia,” featuring F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Arts Midwest.
“If you are looking for a book that combines a love story, wild parties, gangsters, a murder mystery, and the most perfect kiss in literature, then The Great Gatsby is for you,” said Susan Coleman, director of the Virginia Foundation for the Book. Communities across Virginia are encouraged to read and discuss The Great Gatsby, which many consider to be the most popular classic in modern American fiction. For resource materials or to learn how to obtain a reading guide, a teacher’s guide or a CD with radio programs on the book, go to www.virginiafoundation.org/bookcenter or contact Susan Coleman at 434-982-2983 or spcoleman@virginia.edu.
In addition to the Virginia Foundation Center for the Book, two library systems in Virginia received Big Read grants. In the Pamunkey Regional Library area, community members will be read Fahrenheit 451 and in the Newport News Public Library area, they will read Their Eyes were Watching God.
After executing a successful pilot Big Read program with ten communities in 2006, the Arts Endowment announced last May that it would take the Big Read nationwide with the Virginia Foundation being one of the next organizations chosen to participate. In July 2006, Mrs. Laura Bush enthusiastically joined the Big Read as its Honorary Chair. 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.
“With the Big Read we want to get everyone in a community—from high school kids and office workers to public officials and senior citizens—reading a great book together,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. “Our goal is to get people talking about Fahrenheit 451 or The Great Gatsby with the same conviction that they debate the World Series. We want people to feel worse about not reading the book than they do about missing an episode of Lost or CSI.”
"We are delighted to be partners in The Big Read. It's exciting to know that our partnership on the national level can make it possible for local communities across the United States to connect around reading a good book,” said IMLS Director Dr. Anne-Imelda M. Radice. “My message to the new communities that are now part of The Big Read is: Bravo, I urge everyone to get involved; reading together is a powerful experience!"
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