Welcome to Little Wing. It’s a place like hundreds of others, but for four boyhood friends—all born and raised in this small Wisconsin town—it is home. One of them never left, still working the family farm, but the others felt the need to move on. One trades commodities, another took to the rodeo circuit. One of them hit it big as a rock star. And then there’s Beth, a woman who has meant something special in each of their lives.
An intimate story of brotherhood, love, sacrifice, and betrayal set against the panoramic backdrop of an early twentieth-century America that eerily echoes our own time, The Cold Millions offers a portrait of a nation grappling with the chasm between rich and poor, between harsh realities and simple dreams.
Waukesha Reads featured When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka as our 2020 NEA Big Read title! (Click HERE for the NEA’s Reader Resources.) About the Book A day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Julie Otsuka’s grandfather was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on suspicion of being a Japanese spy. Her mother, grandmother, and uncle […]
Lab Girl is a nature lover’s story about digging in dirt and discovering new things about old growth. It’s a scientist’s story about running experiments and waiting and wondering and asking for funds and fending off doubt.
In a small town in Ohio in 1977, the oldest daughter and favorite child of a biracial couple — her mother is white, her father is Chinese-American — is found drowned in a lake. As her parents and siblings struggle to solve the mystery of her death, a web of family secrets emerges to reveal how fragile the relationships between husband and wife, parent and child, and brother and sister can be when ambitions are thwarted, societal pressures mount, and fears and desires are kept buried.
Waukesha Reads featured True Grit, one of the great American Western novels, as our 2017 NEA Big Read title. True Grit by Charles Portis was published in 1968 and tells the story of a woman named Mattie Ross, who recounts the time when she was a young girl and sought retribution for the murder of her father.
Waukesha Reads/NEA Big Read 2016 featured To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is the rare American novel that can be discovered with excitement in adolescence and reread into adulthood without fear of disappointment. Few novels so appealingly evoke the daily world of childhood in a way that seems convincing whether you are sixteen or sixty-six.
May 11, 2016—Waukesha, WI—Waukesha Public Library is a recipient of a grant of $20,000 to host the NEA Big Read in Waukesha. A program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. Waukesha Public Library is one of 77 nonprofit organizations to receive a grant to host an NEA Big Read project between September 2016 and June 2017. The NEA Big Read in Waukesha will focus on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Activities will take place September 30-November 13, 2016.
Grant Lynch, Executive Director of Waukesha Public Library, responds to news of the award, “The management and execution of Waukesha Reads – NEA Big Read over the past nine years has elevated the Waukesha Public Library as a national leader of pro-literacy community-based programs, while solidifying a strong partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The ten-year anniversary is a mark of excellence both for our Library and for that of our city: Waukesha Reads is a testament to the power of volunteerism, of overwhelming civic interest in support of literature and of determination to create something extraordinary for the betterment of our community. There are so many distractions in our world that work to remove us from one another, but Waukesha Reads does the opposite, and it does it well: it truly unites the community through the study of great literature, and I can think of nothing more positive and beneficial to all of us.”
Jane Chu, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, said, “I have the opportunity to travel around the country and see the way the arts can inspire, allow for reflection, and create new experiences. I look forward to the creative ways these 77 organizations will bring their communities together around a great work of literature through their participation in the NEA Big Read.”
Managed by Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read offers grants to support innovative community reading programs designed around a single book. The program supports organizations across the country in developing community-wide reading programs which encourage reading and participation by diverse audiences. Organizations selected to participate in the NEA Big Read receive a grant, access to online training resources and opportunities, and educational and promotional materials designed to support widespread community involvement.
Waukesha Public Library is proud to collaborate with more than 40 partners, including educational institutions, arts and recreation organizations and area business, to bring this program to our community. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please visit neabigread.org.
It is the vision of Waukesha Public Library to be the community’s best source for inspiration, ideas and information. The Library staff is committed to serving the public in a customer centered and pro-active manner, providing a wide variety of materials, resources, and services. For more information about the Library, please visit waukeshapubliclibrary.org.
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts and the agency is celebrating this milestone with events and activities through September 2016. Go to arts.gov/50th to enjoy art stories from around the nation, peruse Facts & Figures, and check out the anniversary timeline.
Arts Midwest promotes creativity, nurtures cultural leadership, and engages people in meaningful arts experiences, bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people’s lives. Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years. For more information, please visit artsmidwest.org.
Friday, September 25, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Friday Night Live @ the Five Points
• Free books and program information
• Map Your World – 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Waukesha Community Arts Project, 320 South St.,
Join the fantasy genre’s tradition of map making at this drop-in event, open to all ages and abilities. Create individual artwork and participate in a collaborative piece to be displayed at Waukesha Public Library. All materials and instruction provided. Details: 262-408-5482 or wcartproject@gmail.com
• The Joke Shop Magic Show – 7:00 p.m.
The Joke Shop, 265 W. Main
Free magic show for all ages! Professional and student performers! A whole lot of fun! Details: 262-544-5678
Saturday, September 26, 8:00 a.m. – Noon
Waukesha Farmers’ Market, Riverfront Plaza
• Free books and program information
• Drop off books for Children’s Books for Hope
Waukesha Reads/The Big Read 2015 featured A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. A Wizard of Earthsea is a classic coming-of-age novel and arguably the most widely admired American fantasy novel of the past fifty years. Originally published as a young-adult novel in 1968, Le Guin’s adventure tale is so imaginatively engaging and psychologically profound it captivates readers of all ages.
Those attending the Waukesha Reads – The Big Read Brown Bag Conversation in October had some fun with poetry and the Poe theme. Check out these creative limericks.There once was a poet named Poe,
Whose ma said, “Now, Edgar, you know,
That with some jocularity
Plus a touch hilarity
Using less gloom might be apropos.
There once was a poet named Poe
Whose writings are famous, you know.
His mysteries and fantasies
Affect me emotionally.
I cease to say “mo” about Poe.
There once was a poet named Poe
Whose years were filled with great woe.
He moved from city to city
With a wife who was quite pretty,
But wealth he never did know.
There once was a poet named Poe
Whose life was a tale of woe.
He missed his dead wife
All of his life,
So his sadness would never go.
There once was a poet named Poe
Whose drug and alcohol use brought him low.
So his writing was creepy,
And his poems sadly weepy,
Resulting in great tales of woe.
There once was poet named Poe
Whose soul was enveloped in woe.
He wrote out his pain
In the bleak and the rain;
He proved that you reap what you sow.
There once was a poet named Poe
Who wrote many poems of woe,
Like the grief of Lenore
And the Raven’s “Nevermore;”
None of which earned him much dough
There once was a poet named Poe
Who one day ran out of dough;
So he wrote a story
That was really gory,
And now he is “Poe” no “mo.”
There once was a poet named Poe;
Had all his ducks in a row,
Bringing quacks of good cheer,
And never a fear;
And this is as far as we’ll go.
There once was a poet named Poe
Who was stranded in a large flow;
With a skill so outstanding
And courage so demanding
He faced the world with a glow.
There once was a poet named Poe
Who did not make very much dough.
Some days he was sad;
Some days he was glad.
His writings were mostly of woe.
Do you want to know more about Edgar Allan Poe and his work? Explore these sites to learn more.The Big Read Reader’s Guide
The Big Read Teacher’s Guide
The Big Read Audio Guide
The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
The Poe Museum
Poe Stories
Putting books in the hands and homes of children in need.Thank you to all who donated new and gently used children’s books for the Free Children’s Library located at Waukesha’s Hope Center.
More than 450 books were collected during the Waukesha Reads – The Big Read program. These books are given away to families that visit the Hope Center – putting books in the hands and homes of children in need.
Book donations are accepted throughout the year at Hope Center located at 502 East Avenue in Waukesha.
Get in on the Flat Poe fun!Pick up your Flat Poe at the Waukesha Public Library or during Waukesha Reads – The Big Read Kickoff events on September 26 and 27. Take Poe with you wherever you go or send him to friends near and far. Then post photos of your Flat Poe adventures on the Waukesha Reads Facebook page.
We are extremely grateful to artist John Kascht for creating this special Poe for Waukesha Reads – The Big Read.
John is originally from Waukesha and is among a handful of caricaturists whose work is collect by The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. Find out more about John’s work at www.johnkascht.com.
Do You Know Poe?Free copies of Poe’s work in both English and Spanish and copies of the children’s companion title, The Tell-Tale Start by Gordon McAlpine, are now available at the Waukesha Public Library, while supplies last.
Books and program information also will be distributed at Waukesha’s Friday Night Live, September 26 from 6:30-9:00 p.m. and at the Waukesha Farmers’ Market, Saturday, September 27 from 8:00 a.m.-Noon.
Enter a writing contest? Have you lost our mind?Poe wrote all sorts of stories about people losing their minds.
Now you can do the same and enter the Waukesha Reads – The Big Read Flash Fiction Contest.
Create your own fictional masterpiece, 1,000 words or less, with a “Losing My Mind” theme and you could win!
Open to middle and high school students and adults. Winners will be selected in each category.
Deadline is October 6, 2014.
Poe wrote all sorts of stories about people losing their minds. Now you can do the same and enter the Waukesha Reads – The Big Read Flash Fiction Contest.
The theme of the contest is, as you might have guessed, “Losing My Mind.” We want you to create your own fictional masterpiece with the “Losing My Mind” theme. Your story can be happy, sad, creepy (one of Poe’s favorites), funny, uplifting—whatever you like. This is a chance to let the rest of the world know what’s on your mind.
Submissions to the Waukesha Reads – The Big Read Flash Fiction Contest will be evaluated within three participant categories:
The winner in each category will receive:
A runner-up in each category will receive:
Judging
Submission will be judged anonymously. Your name will not appear with the text of your entry during judging.
Works will be judged by a panel of judges.
Contest Guidelines
It’s time to say the obvious. No author stays internationally popular for 150 years by accident. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the classic authors of American literature—a master of the short story, a magician of the short poem, and a critic of brilliance and originality. And no small part of his artistic sleight of hand is that he appeals to readers from childhood to old age.
