By Jennifer Bartman

	A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway’s novel about a wartime romance, has been chosen as South Florida’s Big Read book

For the second year in a row, South Florida is participating in The Big Read, a program the National Endowment for the Arts began as “a national initiative to encourage literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book.”

Thanks to cooperation between Broward County Library's Florida Center for the Book and the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College, people all over the region can participate in book discussions, film screenings, lectures and performances all centered on this year’s book: Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. These events will take place during March and April in both Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which means that if you live in South Florida, there is an excellent chance that there is a Big Read event happening at a library or university near you.

The NEA began The Big Read project after conducting a study called “Reading at Risk” in 2004, in which they found that the number of children and adults who read literary works has been declining dramatically over the last decade. In order to help reverse this trend, 10 communities were selected to participate in The Big Read’s pilot program last year, and South Florida was one of them. This year, over 70 communities participated in The Big Read, and so, it is safe to say that the project has been a remarkable success.

Tara Zimmerman, Literary Events Coordinator for the Florida Center for the Book, explains that one important reason South Florida was chosen to pilot The Big Read was “because of our diversity, particularly the Latin American and Caribbean communities. The NEA saw this as a unique opportunity to expose these newcomers to American literature, and they gave us extra money to purchase books and materials in Spanish.”

	Last year’s Big Read, which featured Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, was a big success

She says A Farewell to Arms was selected as this year’s book “not only because of Hemingway's connection to Florida but also because of the timely themes of the aftermath and consequences of war on human relationships.”

Last year’s Big Read book was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which was selected from the NEA’s list of American literary classics, books meant to appeal to a large audience. Zimmerman said the community response to The Big Read 2006 was fantastic.

“Thousands of people in both Broward and Miami-Dade participated in book discussions, film screenings, dramatic readings, art installations and a live video conference with Ray Bradbury,” she says. “The overwhelmingly positive response tells us that there are people out there hungry for quality literary events and programs.”

	A Farewell to Arms, then and now

Because last year’s Big Read was so successful, this year they have expanded the program to incorporate other South Florida literary events, particularly Lit Live!, which coordinator Olivia Wakeling describes as an event of Literary Feast 2007, which benefits the Broward Public Library Foundation. During Lit Live! the Davie Campus of Nova Southeastern University will host 26 nationally renowned authors, who will engage in one-on-one and group discussions of a variety of literary topics. This series of discussions and panels will be held on March 24, from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., and will be free and open to the public.

In comparison to the Big Read, which is the larger event, the Literary Feast is actually a more established in South Florida.

“This will be the 19^th edition of Literary Feast,” says Wakeling.  “The Foundation works closely with the Florida Center for the Book, and sometimes we are able to combine our efforts with collaborations such as this.”

Not only are organizers from the Literary Feast working together with those from The Big Read to promote all of the events, but there are thematic similarities as well.

“One of the [Lit Live!] panels will focus on the literature of war and peace and feature Andrew Carroll, Sam Moses, Ishmael Beah, and Jeff Shaara,” says Zimmerman. “The panel will be moderated by Lt. Col. James Meredith of the U.S. Air Force Academy, who also happens to be the current president of the Hemingway Society. We felt that by writing about the effects of war, these authors were following in Hemingway's footsteps by exposing the tragic consequences on human relationships. By bringing the two projects together in this way, we are also able to bring added exposure to both of these worthwhile reading and discussion programs.”

	Ernest Hemingway, during the time he lived in Key West

Several local teachers have organized weekend field trips to attend Literary Feast events like Lit Live! in order to expose students to literature in a way that is personal and engaging. Olivia Wakeling says that the benefits of attending are many.

“Attendees will have a chance to interact on a personal level with…nationally renowned authors,” she says. “Guests can have a book personally signed and grab a cup of coffee the authors in our Authors' Café…a lounge set up in the atrium of the Alvin Sherman Library where the authors will be hanging out throughout the day.  It is such a great way to bring literature to life for students and adults alike.”