New Hampshire Humanities (NHH) is one of 62 organizations nationwide selected to receive a 2023-2024 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant of $20,000.
An initiative of the NEA, in partnership with Arts Midwest, a Big Read broadens understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the power of a shared reading experience. In partnership with the Center for the Book at the NH State Library, NH State Council for the Arts, New Hampshire Public Radio, NH Department of Corrections-Family Connections Center, 50 local libraries and community organizations, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, Gibson’s Bookstore, and scholars, NHH’s Big Read will bring more than 5,000 Granite Staters together to discuss a selected book, The Bear by New Hampshire author Andrew Krivak.
The Big Read will take place from September through November 2023 and will feature book discussions, public programs, and a public Q&A with Andrew Krivak, all free and open to the public. Events will take place in all ten counties of the state.
With financial support from NHH, 50 public libraries will partner with a community organization to host both a community event and discussion of The Bear. NHH will provide all participants with a complimentary copy of the book, purchased through Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord.
In addition to supporting these local events, NHH will host four public programs and a culminating event. The Big Read will kick off with a public event on September 6 at Great North Aleworks in Manchester and feature a dramatic reading from the novel. On September 8, NHH will host Dr. Brent Ryan Bellamy for a virtual discussion exploring what a recent slate of postapocalyptic books might reveal about our contemporary anxieties. On September 23, NHH will partner with the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center for a planetarium show in which participants will experience how the daughter used the stars to track the passage of time in the novel. On November 3, poet Midge Goldberg will examine how poets have told stories about the night sky throughout human history.
Working with the NH Department of Corrections through our Connections program, NHH will use The Bear to encourage incarcerated parents to tell their own stories and reflect on the role parents hold in sharing knowledge of the past with their children.
The Big Read will culminate with public discussion and book signing with author Andrew Krivak at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord on October 14.
