Join us for our 2024 NEA Big Read Kick Off celebrating Thi Bui's "The Best We Could Do"! Meet us at the Stetson Library Branch for activities, grab your complimentary copy of the book, and mingle with our partners. It's an evening of community, literature, and camaraderie!
The 2024 NEA Big Read book is Thi Bui’s The Best We Could. Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do (Abrams ComicArts, 2017) has been selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and San Francisco public libraries, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography, and an Eisner Award finalist in reality-based comics.
The Best We Could explores themes of displacement, migration, cultural identity, family, history and intergenerational healing. Through book discussions, film, storytelling, conversation, visual and performance art the International Festival of Arts & Ideas along with its partners will create interactive and thought-provoking programming. NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
