Tom Isern, University Distinguished Professor of history, and NDSU alumna Suzzanne Kelley, PhD ’10, history, recently were writers-in-residence at the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Kelley is managing editor of the New Rivers Press at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

The Stegner house is the boyhood home of Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award recipient Wallace Stegner. The two-story frame structure is the property of the Eastend Arts Council, and is maintained as a residence for visiting artists.

“The chance to write in Wally’s room upstairs, with its stunning view of the Frenchman River valley, was an extraordinary experience that did my heart good,” Kelley said.

Isern and Kelley’s main project during the residence was a co-written essay, titled “Half World: The Boyhood Environment of Wallace Stegner.” When the residency was completed, they presented the essay as a lecture as part of the Curator’s Café series of the Esplanade Museum in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada.

Isern said each also pursued other individual writing projects. “We enjoyed getting into the rhythm of the town of Eastend, hiking along its riverbanks and canals, talking with the neighbors and savoring our meals at Jack’s Café,” he said of the experience.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.