Join us for our finale to this year's NEA Big Read: Wichita with a keynote address by author Sarah Smarsh.  Her bestselling book Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth recounts her life growing up in the Wichita area as a child of working class parents who had great difficulty rising above their circumstances.  Her book explores many essential themes found in Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street: the desire to create her own future as a writer, the need to escape the barriers that prevent women from reaching their potential, and the keen observer's eye that notices the details of home and community.  Smarsh learned life's lessons at a young age and used them as a way of creating her own place in the world.