The
Big Read is an initiative
of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) designed to revitalize the role of
literary reading in American popular culture. The NEA awarded ArtsWestchester
(formerly known as Westchester Arts Council) a grant to bring The Big Read
to Westchester. ArtsWestchester is partnering with Westchester Library System,
Westchester Community College, schools and colleges, local libraries, civic and
community groups, and cultural organizations including the Writers’ Center to
invite you to participate. More details can be found on the ArtsWestchester website,
www.artswestchester.org
and on www.neabigread.org.
The Big Read in Westchester will focus on Ernest J. Gaines’ powerful novel, A Lesson Before Dying. This beautifully written, deceptively simple book about a young man wrongfully convicted of murder and the educated man who helps him explores complex issues of race and identity. In the words of NEA chairman Dana Gioia, the book “offers a painful yet inspirational tale of institutional injustice and personal redemption. It addresses the biggest theme possible—how one affirms life in the face of death.”
On Thursday evening, February 26th at 7:30, Mr. Gaines will read and answer questions for our audience in a live teleconference to be held in the Lecture Hall of Mercy College, 555 Broadway in Dobbs Ferry. Admission is free, but reservations are suggested. Please reserve seats by calling Lauren Milo at 914.428.4220 x235 or e-mailing lmilo@artswestchester.org For directions to Mercy College, click here.
Ernest
James Gaines was born in 1933 on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana.
His father left the family early and his mother moved to New Orleans to find work,
leaving Ernest in the care of his disabled aunt. He began to write and stage plays
at the local church while still in his early teens. In 1949 he moved to be with
his mother in Vallejo, California, where she had found work in the post-World
War II economic boom. While in school there, he spent a good deal of time at the
downtown Carnegie Library reading extensively, especially novels about the South.
An Army tour in Guam was sandwiched between junior college and college, after
which Gaines entered writer Wallace Stegner’s prestigious creative writing program
at Stanford and soon won the Joseph Henry Jackson Award for a novel in progress
(1964’s Catherine Carmier). He followed up three years later with Of
Love and Dust, which coincided with a fellowship from the National Endowment
for the Arts, and broke through to a wider audience with The Autobiography
of Miss Jane Pittman in 1971. A Lesson Before Dying (1993), winner
of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, is Gaines’
sixth novel.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.
For a complete schedule of Big Read events in Westchester, click here.
The Hudson Valley Writers' Center - Home