At the Wichita City Council meeting Tuesday Mayor Carl Brewer announced the Big Read would return for the fifth year this fall.
This year’s selection for the Big Read will be “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and will run October 1 through November 21.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment of the Arts and is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.
Wichita is one of 78 communities participating in the Big Read this year, which makes the city one of the longest running Big Read communities in the nation.
At the City Council meeting Brewer said reading enriches the reader and the community.
“Research provides this is true,” said Brewer. “Reading is important for personal development, civic enhancement and community enhancement.”
Brewer will serve as an honorary chair of Big Read Wichita, along with Sedgwick County Commissioner Tim Norton and Wichita Public Schools Board of Education President Betty Arnold.
There will be events throughout the fall to Celebrate Big Read Wichita, starting with a kickoff event October 6 at the Wichita Art Museum.
KMUW is media sponsor of the Big Read Wichita.