ORLANDO — Orange County Library System launches its National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program on Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 2 p.m. This year, OCLS, in partnership with Valencia College, highlights Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, a collection by poet and author Ross Gay, who will deliver a keynote at the kickoff event on April 2.
Orange County Library System is one of 62 not-for-profit organizations to receive a grant to host an NEA Big Read project between 2022-2023. Showcasing a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, the NEA Big Read aims to inspire conversation and discovery. Orange County Library System has chosen to celebrate Ross Gay’s poetry collection, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Events highlighting the message of meditation and joy found in Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude will take place at all 15 library locations between April 2–30, 2023.
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His first collection of essays from 2019, The Book of Delights, was a New York Times bestseller. Inciting Joy, his newest collection of essays, was released by Algonquin in October of 2022.
Registration for the keynote/kickoff event with Ross Gay at Orlando Public Library on April 2 is not required to attend. Guests that register will receive a copy of the book Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
You can view a full calendar of events for the NEA Big Read in Orange County at ocls.info/bigread or call the library at 407.835.7323 for more information.
