LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The 2023 NEA Big Read hosted by the Lake County Library has partnered with the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College for the program’s formal kickoff event.

The kickoff event will take place in the campus library in Building 100, located at 15880 Dam Road Extension in Clearlake, on Thursday, Feb. 9, from noon to 2 p.m.

The Valentine’s Day-themed 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 Bruno Sabatier and Eddie Crandall will be joining college and library staff and the public to celebrate. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

The public is invited to join in on the festivities and share their own love stories, whether romantic love with significant others or life partners, love of nature, love of community, or love of culture and ethnic heritages.

The first week of the 2023 NEA Big Read will continue with the Second Thursday Writing Circle with Richard Schmidt on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Main Street Gallery in Lakeport.

Lake County Farmers’ Finest will host the NEA Big Read on Saturday, Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Mercantile located at 4350 Thomas Drive in Lakeport.

Later that afternoon, Schmidt will host a “Taste of Poetry” event at the Lakeport Library at 2 p.m.

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 poetry readings.

O'Meara Bros. Brewing Co. in Lakeport has once again partnered with the Library for the NEA Big Read by crafting a new, unique beer to commemorate the program. The Post-Colonial Love Poem ale will be available to order beginning in February.

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.

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/.

The NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, which seeks to broaden our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery.

The Lake County Library is a recipient of a $9,500 grant to host the NEA Big Read countywide with dynamic community reading programs, and selected “Postcolonial Love Poem” by Natalie Diaz for 2023 programming.

Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, “Postcolonial Love Poem” is a collection of poetry by Arizona poet Natalie Diaz, who is Mojave, an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe, Latinx and queer.

The poems push against the forces of racism, environmental destruction, addiction, and mental illness with the power of desire, love and language.

From publisher Gray Wolf Press, “‘Postcolonial Love Poem’ is an anthem of desire against erasure. Natalie Diaz’s brilliant second collection demands that every body carried in its pages — bodies of language, land, rivers, suffering brothers, enemies, and lovers — be touched and held as beloveds.”

Follow the Lake County Library on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or sign up for the online newsletter for updates. Visit the Lake County Library’s website at http://library.lakecountyca.gov.

Visit arts.gov/neabigread for more information about the NEA Big Read. Organizations interested in applying for an NEA Big Read grant in the future should visit Arts Midwest’s at https://artsmidwest.org/ for more information.