For immediate release: March 4, 2010

BLOOMSBURG — The Big Read: Reading and Discussion Series, based at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania’s Andruss Library, will focus on Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Age of Innocence.”

Sessions will be held on Thursdays, April 1, 8, 22 and 29, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the library’s Schweiker Room. Registration will be open from March 15 to 22 at the circulation desk and each registered participant will receive a copy of the novel and a reader’s guide.

“The Age of Innocence” centers on an upperclass couple’s future marriage and the introduction of a scandalous woman whose presence threatens their happiness. The novel is praised for its accurate portrayal of how the 19th-century East Coast American upperclass lived and this, combined with the social tragedy, earned Wharton a Pulitzer Prize, the first Pulitzer awarded to a woman.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designated to restore reading to the center of American culture. The Big Read will bring together partners across Columbia and Montour counties to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.

For more information, contact Katie Yelinek, interim subject specialist for English/social sciences, Andruss Library, at (570) 389-4228 or by e-mail.

Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The university serves approximately 9,000 students, offering comprehensive programs of study in the colleges of Education, Business, Liberal Arts and Science and Technology.