NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. It is designed to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
The National Endowment for the Arts provides a list of titles from which communities across the country must choose their annual Big Read book selection. In Poughkeepsie, we have read the following:
- 2007 – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- 2008 – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- 2009 – Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- 2010 – The Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
- 2011 – The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Our Town by Thornton Wilder
- 2012 – The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
- 2013 – The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
- 2014 – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- 2015 – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- 2016 – Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
- 2017 – How We Became Human by Joy Harjo
- 2018 – Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Eng
- 2019 – Burning Bright by Ron Rash
- 2020 – Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
- 2021 – The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
- 2022 – Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
- 2023 – The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
- 2024 – The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton