Publisher's Weekly reports that The National Endowment for the Arts announced another round of grants for its Big Read initiative, which is aimed at promoting reading within communities. Totaling $2.8 million, the new grants will go to 208 libraries and other organizations that organize Big Read activities in their regions. Each organization will receive between $2,500 to $20,000 to promote and execute Big Read programs, to be held between September and next June. To date, the NEA has given more than 500 grants to support local Big Read projects.
Organizations must choose from a selected list of titles to be eligible for this grant. Made up of twenty-three titles, the most recent additions are, Love Medicine by Louise Erdich, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, The Bridge of San Luis Rey together with Our Town by Thornton Wilder, and a special collection of poetry and short fiction by Edgar Allan Poe. The NEA is also launching The Big Read Mexico with short works from Mexican writers that are being collected in the anthology Sun, Stone, and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories, to be published by Mexico's Fondo de Cultura Economica.