Dr. Mia Zamora, Coordinator of World Literature, the Department of English, has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to host The Big Read between September 2009 and May 2010. The Big Read gives communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate a common reading selection. Kean University’s launch of The Big Read is a General Education & World Literature Program initiative.
The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts grant designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. The Big Read answers a big need. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young.
The Big Read aims to address this crisis squarely and effectively. It provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities. The initiative includes innovative reading programs, comprehensive resources for discussing the literature, an ambitious national publicity campaign, and an extensive Web site providing comprehensive information. As a host of The Big Read, Kean University’s English Department will carry out this extensive community-based reading program featuring activities such as book discussions, lectures, movie screenings, and performing arts events. We will be partnering with the Elizabeth Public Library, local Veteran’s Associations, and a variety of local high schools for the outreach component of this NEA grant.
The selected text for Kean University’s Big Read is Tim O'Brien’s The Things They Carried, considered one of the finest books about the Vietnam War. Far from a combat story of pride and glory, it is a compassionate tale of the American soldier, brimming with raw honesty and thoughtful reflection. O’Brien challenges readers to ponder larger philosophical questions about truth and memory, and brings the reader closer to the emotional core of the soldier’s experiences. The Things They Carried is not just a tale of war, and the book’s themes are no less relevant today than they were decades ago. This award winning book is a brutal, sometimes funny, often profound narrative about the human heart – how it fares under pressure and what it can endure.
The Things They Carried must be incorporated into all World Literature syllabi for the academic year 2009-2010. All World Literature professors this year (Fall 2009 and Spring 2010) will receive high-quality, free-of-charge educational materials (Reader’s, Teacher’s, and Audio Guides) to support their classroom discussions of this requisite text. As additional support for this effort, there will be a World Literature workshop in August (and another in January) to help prepare all instructors to integrate this reading into their World Literature syllabi. There will be a series of programming events both on the Kean University campus and also at the Elizabeth Public Library in Spring 2010. Programming will begin here on campus with a big kick-off event, and conclude with a Kean University campus reading from author Tim O’Brien.
Copies of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried will be available all year for purchase in the campus bookstore for the entire Kean University community as well as visitors to our campus. In addition, there will be several available copies of the book and the 'book on tape' for "on-site reading" throughout campus in designated Big Read "reserve reading areas" for all students/faculty/staff. A more detailed schedule of the events programming will be distributed when the schedule is finalized.