Writers@Work Wraps Up Successful Chattanooga Big Read 2017

  • Thursday, April 20, 2017
  • Erica Lux, Chattanooga State

The Chattanooga State Humanities Department’s Writers@Work team would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all those in the Chattanooga community who supported the Chattanooga Big Read 2017 (www.chattbigread.org).

With its focus on Tayari Jones’s novel Silver Sparrow, the Big Read was a four-month project undertaken by the Writers@Work (W@W) team in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest to encourage citizens throughout the community to share in the enjoyment of reading a common book. The Writers@Work program, in its sixth year at Chattanooga State, was created by members of the Humanities Department to further the study of literature and to provide cultural opportunities to members of the community that the College serves. Past authors have included Rick Bragg, Terry Kay, Ishmael Reed, Jill McCorkle, Robert Morgan, Lila Weaver, and Ron Rash.  This year’s author, Tayari Jones, is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, as are many of the program’s previous guests. Jones’s novel already had been selected by the W@W team as its 2017 pick before the NEA announced its inclusion as a Big Read selection, so a collaboration between the two entities seemed inevitable. 

A successful NEA Big Read grant application allowed the W@W team to expand the scope of its program in a number of significant ways. Historically, public programming has been limited to a weeklong visit by the selected W@W author each April. For the Big Read, the celebration of Silver Sparrow began with a kickoff event in January, followed by monthly arts events in February and March before Ms. Jones spent a week with Chattanooga readers April 10-14. These events offered readers the chance to explore the novel via the visual and performing arts, as well as the literary ones. The grant also made possible the presentation of free copies of the novel to anyone in the community who wanted one. The ChattState W@W team partnered with the HCDE to provide nearly 2,000 copies of the novel to area high schools, including 600 copies to Tyner Academy, where Jones spent several hours last week reading to the assembled student body, answering questions, and signing books. Another 50 copies were donated to Turn the Page, a non-profit program funded by the Southern Literature Alliance that facilitates book clubs, arts programming, and reentry preparation inside the Bradley County Jail. Founded and directed by Cleveland State Community College Assistant Professor of English Dr. Victoria Bryan, the program is facilitated by Desdia Dill and Haven Wright. Tayari Jones met with over 80 inmates to discuss the novel's themes and personal impact. In all, the W@W team distributed some 2,400 complimentary copies of the novel, including starter kits to over 20 new Chattanooga area book clubs that registered for the Big Read.

By last week’s Big Read finale at the Hunter Museum of American Art, nearly 1,750 Chattanooga residents had participated directly in Big Read programming and countless more had read Jones’s novel. An event of this magnitude requires extensive planning and an extensive support network, and the Writers@Work team would like to thank the many community partners who helped to make the program a success: Chattanooga State Community College, UNUM, the Tennessee Arts Commission, EPB, the Chattanooga Public Library, the Hunter Museum of American Art, the Camp House, Townsend Atelier, the Southern Literature Alliance, Nick Hughes Design, and Star Line Books. 

The W@W team invites you to join them in reading another great book, George Singleton’s short story collection The Half-Mammals of Dixie, in preparation for Writers@Work 2018. Save the date for Singleton’s weeklong visit to Chattanooga during the week of April 2-8, 2018.  Follow Writers@Work on social media (Facebook: Chatt State’s Writers at Work; Twitter: @CSWritersAtWork; Instagram: @CSWritersAtWork). Email WritersAtWork@chattanoogastate.edu for more information on the Writers@Work program.

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