We are excited and honored to be one of 75 communities selected nationwide to host “The Big Read”— a program of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.

The Big Read answers a big need. Less than half of American adults read literature (novels, short stories, poetry, drama). The Big Read addresses this issue by bringing communities together to read, discuss, and celebrate books and writers from American and world literature... to re-engage us with reading for fun.

And so we present a month of special programs, projects, and discussion surrounding The Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Why Poe? His influence is so important and his work is so accessible. The detective story, the horror tale, the short story, and “pure poetry” each owe him a debt. There was no one like Poe before, and no American storytelling form has been the same since.

Whether you’re a regular reader already or making up for lost time, I encourage you to renew your relationship with books this spring. Grab a good book, and may you enjoy reading evermore!