A grant awarded to an NDSU English and education assistant professor will help bring a best-selling author to Fargo. Kelly Sassi has been awarded a grant from the North Dakota Humanities Council for her proposal, titled “Reading Literature/ Viewing Art: ‘Moby-Dick,’ ‘Ahab’s Wife’ and the Paintings of T.L. Solien.” The grant will help make it possible to bring award-winning author Sena Jeter Naslund to Fargo to read from her best-selling novel, “Ahab’s Wife: Or, the Stargazer,” during the Plains Art Museum’s exhibit of paintings by T.L. Solien in fall 2013. The paintings are inspired by Naslund’s novel and Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick.”
Tim Peterson, associate dean of the College of Business, is scheduled to host the reading at Richard H. Barry Hall. Concurrent with the exhibit and reading, the Fargo Public Library is scheduled to host a community reading of the two novels. The Fargo Theatre is planning a “Moby-Dick” film series.
The grant also will fund a panel presentation on art, history and literature by Sassi; Colleen Sheehy, director of the Plains Art Museum; David Silkenat, assistant professor of history; and Gary Totten, associate professor of English. Sassi also will lead the Red River Valley Writing Project Open Institute for teachers on the use of art and writing in the classroom.
NDSU is recognized as one of the top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.