Lewis & Clark Library is a recipient of a grant of $15,000 to host the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read in Lewis & Clark county. Their NEA Big Read focuses on Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea. Activities will take place in January 2021. NEA Big Read aims to inspire conversation and discovery by broadening our understanding of our world, communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

We are delighted to present this year’s NEA Big Read author Luis Alberto Urrea! Register in advance for this free webinar: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EjiWLfHeTsGkYpSWXeKagw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Hailed by NPR as a “literary badass” and a “master storyteller with a rock and roll heart,” Luis Alberto Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss, and triumph.

A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 17 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, fiction, and essays. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.”

Urrea attended the University of California at San Diego, earning an undergraduate degree in writing, and did his graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

After serving as a relief worker in Tijuana and a film extra and columnist-editor-cartoonist for several publications, Urrea moved to Boston where he taught expository writing and fiction workshops at Harvard. He also taught at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

Urrea lives with his family in Naperville, IL, where he is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago.