(Carroll) — Three Iowa organizations have received National Endowment for the Arts “Big Read” grants this year to spark community discussions about a piece of well-known American literature.
The Carroll Public Library’s Foundation matched the $20,000 federal grant, is providing free copies of “The Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe” and the library is hosting events during the month of October. Wendy Johnson, director of the Carroll Public Library, said the National Endowment for the Arts gave libraries a list of books to choose from and they chose the collection of Poe’s work partly because of the proximity to Halloween.
“It is exciting to people of different generations. Older people can read Edgar Allen Poe. Younger people read Edgar Allen Poe (and) everybody in the middle. It’s kind of spooky season in October, so that kind of fits in well.”…