Montana State to host author Sterling HolyWhiteMountain on Oct. 24 for speaker series

BOZEMAN - Author Sterling HolyWhiteMountain will explore Blackfeet identity and the relationship between fiction and history on Oct. 24 at Montana State University as part of MSU's "Perspectives on the American West" speaker series.

The event, "On Storied Ground," will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in American Indian Hall's Great Hall, with doors opening at 6 p.m. It is free and open to the public, and a catered reception will follow the program. The talk is hosted by MSU's Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands and Peoples of the North American West in partnership with the university's Native American Studies and English departments and American Studies program.

"We are honored to welcome Sterling HolyWhiteMountain to MSU," said Meredith Hecker, head of the Department of Native American Studies. "His work challenges us to think deeply about identity, place and the power of storytelling in Native communities. Events like this are amazing opportunities to help foster understanding and dialogue across cultures."

HolyWhiteMountain, who grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation, will provide insight into Native place-making and the world of literature, discussing people's obligations to each other and the storied land on which they walk.

His fiction and nonfiction work has appeared in several notable publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, ESPN, High Country News and Montana Quarterly. He is also a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a Jones lecturer at Stanford University, where he formerly held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship for promising writers developing their craft.

"HolyWhiteMountain's writing belongs in the company of great Native fiction writers Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, James Welch and N. Scott Momaday, and he is among the newest, most compelling voices shaping the contours of the literary American West today," said Daniel Grant, Doig Center director.

For more information, contact Grant at [email protected] and visit the Doig Center's website for upcoming events.