A good book can change your life. When I was still in elementary school I recall 2 books that really opened up my imagination and gave me a sense of the world beyond my smaller Wisconsin town. I read The Once and Future King by T.H. White and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Thanks to those books and their authors I believe I started a life-long love of history as well. To help more generations appreciate the transformative power of literature my funder today offers the following opportunity.

This week’s pick: The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The mission of this program is to revitalize the role of literature in American culture. Grants will be made to museums, colleges, and universities partnering with libraries that encourage reading by participating in The Big Read (September 2010 through June 2011).

Approximately seventy-five grants of up to $20,000 in matching funds will be awarded. The deadline to apply is February 2, 2010. In an effort to keep the application process green they request that materials be accessed online.