NEA Big Read to launch in February

The Lake County Library is set to launch its 2023 NEA Big Read programming in February, for the first time since pre-COVID 2018. The NEA Big Read will commence with a kickoff event at the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College in Clearlake on Feb. 9, 2023 from 12 to 2 pm.

The kickoff event will feature an information session, free copies of the NEA Big Read book, and an open forum to celebrate love stories and language. District Supervisors will be joining college and library staff and the public for the kickoff event.

NEA Big Read events will continue throughout February and March and will include a diverse calendar of events from book discussions and writing workshops, to museum presentations on family and local water history, and Farmers' Market booths. A children's Little Read will also be offered with four Storytimes at library branches, featuring age-appropriate books with themes relating to the NEA Big Read book.

Programming will conclude with a virtual author event featuring Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natalie Diaz, author of Postcolonial Love Poem. This closing event will be hosted by the Friends of Mendocino County and will take place at the Mendocino College Lake Center on Saturday March 18, 2023 from 1 to 3 pm. The virtual event will be livestreamed from the college Round Room, and all four branches of the Lake County Library.

The final event will take place at the Lakeport Library on Saturday March 25, 2023 from 1 to 2 pm and features a Poets Laureate Reading including Lake County's Poet Laureate, California's newly appointed State Poet Laureate, and Poets Laureate from Alameda and Ukiah.

The public is invited to attend all NEA Big Read events at no cost, and free books are provided at each event and all library branches until supply runs out. To view the full schedule of events, go to http:// www.lakecountybigread. com/. Follow the Big Read on Facebook by visiting https://www.facebook.com/ LakeCountyBigRead/.

— Submitted