LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Endowment for the Arts, or NEA, in partnership with Arts Midwest, has announced support for 62 nonprofit organizations across the country to hold NEA Big Read programming in 2024 to 2025.

Among the grantees is the Lake County Library, a recipient of an $8,000 grant to host the NEA Big Read countywide with dynamic community reading programs.

The Lake County Library has selected “The Bear” by Andrew Krivak for programming in September and October of 2024.

In total, the NEA is investing $1,075,000 to support programming around a book from the NEA Big Read Library, with the goal of inspiring meaningful conversations, celebrating local creativity, elevating a wide variety of voices and perspectives, and building stronger connections in each community.

The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery. Community programming during this cycle is focused on the theme “Where We Live.”

Grantees chose their NEA Big Read book based on how its themes, characters, and setting relate to the unique aspects of their community.

Inspired by “The Bear” with its homage to earth, wilderness, and survival, the Lake County NEA Big Read project will explore the theme of “Where we live” with programming that will honor the homeland of Lake County, California, exploring local resources, landscapes, and survival skills while turning to “The Bear” for meaningful discussions.

With this year’s NEA Big Read, free paperback books will be provided to library patrons and e-books and audiobooks will also be available for more inclusive literacy accessibility.

Author Andrew Krivak is an award-winning writer whose books include “The Bear,” a Banff Mountain Book Competition winner, Massachusetts Book Awards winner, and National Endowment for the Arts Big Read selection, as well as the freestanding novels of the “Dardan Trilogy: The Sojourn,” a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize; “The Signal Flame,” a Chautauqua Prize finalist; and “Like the Appearance of Horses,” a Library Journal “Best Book of the Year” and Indie Next List for Reading Groups selection.

He lives with his wife and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in the shadow of Mount Monadnock, which inspired much of the landscape in The Bear.

The Lake County Library is currently planning the Big Read calendar of events as they confirm partnerships.

Follow the Lake County Library on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or sign up for their online newsletter for updates. Visit the Lake County Library’s website at http://library.lakecountyca.gov.

Residents can also visit the local Big Read website at http://www.lakecountybigread.com/ to sign up for the Lake County Big Read newsletter and stay tuned for a calendar of events, or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LakeCountyBigRead/.

Georgina Marie Guardado is the coordinator for the Lake County literacy Program.