The Great Michigan Read

By Jan Fedewa, Executive Director
Michigan Humanities Council

Is it the book, the resources, the programs, the touring exhibit, the web site, the documentary, or the author's global presence that is capturing the attention of hundreds of thousands of Michiganians? There is no definitive answer. It's all of the above that is driving Michigan residents to open their copies of The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway and to be reintroduced or reacquainted with a classic piece of American literature literally made in Michigan.

The results of a survey released by the National Endowment for the Arts reinforced the need for the Council to be more engaged in providing literary opportunities for Michigan citizens. According to "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America," fewer than half of American adults are now reading novels, short stories, plays or poetry. The decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002 represents a loss of 20 million potential readers. According to the report, this rate of decline has nearly tripled in the last decade.

These figures challenged us to create a signature program that encouraged reading and rediscovering literature. We answered the challenge with, The Great Michigan Read, a community reading program for the entire state featuring Hemingway's The Nick Adams Stories.

Selecting the right book for The Great Michigan Read was essential. We organized a committee with varying backgrounds and ethnicity to review books we might use in this initiative. The committee developed the following criteria for book selection:

1. Pertinent to the Michigan Humanities Council's theme, "Michigan People, Michigan Places; Our Stories, Our Lives."
2. Relevant to contemporary life and likely to spark dialogue.
3. Interesting and engaging for a statewide audience.
4. Mindful of multiple perspectives and interdisciplinary connections.
5. Reflective of the values of the Michigan Humanities Council and its mission.
6. Reasonable in length (about 300 pages).
7. Currently in print.
8. Preferably by a living Michigan author.

After reviewing more than 55 works, the committee chose The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway spent most of his first 22 summers in Northern Michigan, and the character, Nick Adams, is inspired partly by his experiences. Like Hemingway, Nick summers in Northern Michigan, goes off to war, is wounded, recuperates, and becomes a writer.



We launched the program in July 2007. It will run for a full year. With only four months behind us, the response by the media and cultural organizations has been incredible. We've been interviewed numerous times by radio, television, and newspaper reporters. We have more than 160 organizations, such as libraries, museums, schools, and others participating in the program. Twenty-nine communities are showcasing a traveling exhibit titled, "Up North with the Hemingways." Hundreds of programs are being planned throughout Michigan.

I recently attended a planning session at the Hoyt Public Library in Saginaw. More than 30 people from three communities attended the meeting to discuss their plans for the coming year. Their collaborative efforts use Hemingway and The Nick Adams Stories as the impetus for dialogue, performance, food, trout fishing, school programming, interpretation, writing, film festival, and a lecture series. This is an excellent example of Bay City, Midland, and Saginaw communities working together, sharing ideas, and presenting quality programs as they embrace reading literature. We anticipate many more such programs and collaborative efforts.

If you were to ask me what I think is attributing to The Great Michigan Read’s success, I would have to say it is its broad appeal, along with the resources and the programs planned around reading The Nick Adams Stories. People continue to have an interest in Hemingway's works, his journalistic approach to writing, and his coming-of-age in Michigan.

Also, providing the necessary "accessories" is critical to making this a signature program. Our organization provides a reader’s guide, bookmarks, posters, a web site, podcasts and media support, grant opportunities, a touring exhibit with a brochure that discusses the Hemingways' experiences in Northern Michigan, a publication that identifies Hemingway's haunts for those inclined to walk in his footsteps, a documentary, a speakers' bureau, leadership and more.

This program's success also is related to a dedication to outreach by Michigan cultural organizations. We all want to make outstanding programs available in all corners of the state. From a film festival, to an essay contest, to a lecture, to so much more, the partners in this project have reintroduced Michigan citizens to a literary masterpiece made in Michigan.

“Of the place where he had been a boy he had written well enough. As well as he could then.” The place was Michigan, where Hemingway remembered himself as Nick Adams.

Talk Show

Executive Director Michael Bouman's November 20th blog, "Talk Show,"

is about the magic show that is the prose of the novelist, Roberto Bolaño. His book, The Savage Detectives, is one of those titles you can come back to and enjoy over and over again.