Hope College Presents
NEA Big Read
LAKESHORE 2022
Circe
With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world.
What is the NEA Big Read Lakeshore?
Hope College's NEA Big Read Lakeshore program began in 2014. Our goal is to create and foster a culture where reading matters. We bring our Lakeshore community together around a common book and use this shared experience of reading, discussing, and exploring the themes of the book as a springboard to listen to and learn from each other. Our trademark program takes place annually in November. Partial funding for our Big Read program comes from the NEA Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Reimagining the Big Read Lakeshore as a Hybrid Program
What is a hybrid program?
Because of COVID-19, we had to pivot and switch to offering a virtual program last year. This year it is our hope to provide both in-person AND virtual events as well as virtual options for attending in-person events.
Efficient
Little to no travel. Attend some in person events from the comfort of your own home.
Interactive
Real-time virtual and/or in person interactions with speakers and fellow participants.
Flexible
Some events will be offered in-person and some will be offered virtually. Some will be offered as both.
Global
Going virtual allows us to include speakers beyond our geographical reach.
Guiding Questions for 2021 Program
Whose histories are told? Whose are silenced?
Why is it important for us to learn about Native American history and culture?
What is a poem? What does it mean to pay attention, listen, notice?
Ways to Get Involved
Read the book
Our book's topics and themes are timely and relevant.
Attend our events
Our events offer a variety of perspectives, experiences, and angles on the book.
Interact with others
Our goal is that you listen and learn from others as well as sharing your own ideas and experiences.
Respond
Our community becomes stronger when you make positive changes in response to your interactions with the book.
Find The Book
Our 2021 Big Read and Little Read titles will be available at the Hope College Bookstore, Reader’s World (Holland), The Bookman (Grand Haven), Barnes and Noble in Holland and Amazon.
Participating libraries will host book giveaways in late October.
You can also check out the titles at participating libraries starting in June. Book club bags are available.
- Cook Library (Western Theological Seminary)
- Fennville District Library
- Gary Byker Library of Hudsonville
- Georgetown Township Public Library
- Herrick District Library
- Howard Miller Public Library
- Loutit District Library
- Patmos Library
- Saugatuck-Douglas District Library
- Spring Lake District Library
- Van Wylen Library (Hope College)
Land Acknowledgement
Together we acknowledge that we gather, in West Michigan, on the traditional land of the Peoria, Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe Peoples, past and present.
We honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations.
As a community, we recognize the ever present systemic inequities that stem directly from past wrongdoings. We are grateful for the ways in which stories and words can speak truth and shed insight to these inequalities and wrongdoings, and also provide a way forward towards equality, justice and understanding.
Through these Big Read events and beyond, we commit to respecting and reconciling this long history of injustice, and commit to be better stewards of this land we inhabit.