Each year, the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read initiative brings communities together around the shared activity of reading and discussing a book. On June 16, 2020, the Arts Endowment announced funding for 84 organizations to lead NEA Big Read projects between September 2020 and June 2021, providing a range of activities—in person or virtually—around a book selected from the NEA Big Read library, including Tayari Jones‘s Silver Sparrow.

Visit arts.gov/neabigread for more information about the NEA Big Read, including reader resources—such as book overviews, discussion questions, and interviews with the authors—as well as community stories from past NEA Big Read grantees.