Atlanta participates in the Big Read with Their Eyes Were Watching God
February 9, 2010 at 12:00 pm by Wyatt Williams in Books
PROSE POSE: Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God
What would happen if everyone in Atlanta read Their Eyes Were Watching God at the same time? The city has an opportunity to answer that question this month during the Big Read, a National Endowment for the Arts-sponsored civic-reading program.
The civic reading trend (in which one book is chosen for an entire city to read) has been around since at least the late ’90s, when a Seattle librarian chose Russell Banks’ The Sweet Hereafter to inspire conversation and community throughout the city. The idea caught on, copycat events sprung up across the country, and the American Library Association even put out a guide on how to organize a citywide reading program.
The Big Read hasn’t been without its problems, though: Choosing a single book to please an entire city isn’t easy. In 2002, New York City’s selection process devolved into a publicized fight, causing the library system to decline from participating altogether.
Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has made efforts to streamline the process, offering grants to cities that choose a book from a short, predetermined list.
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(Photo courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection)
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