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THE FOUNTAIN BY PATRICIA OLSON

Sellis has been riding motorcycles for years. This trip, Emma, her nine-year-old granddaughter is coming along for the first time. Their destination is the abandoned town of Crystal Springs, North Dakota. A fountain that looks like a castle tower that Sellis has dreamt about for years is there. They end up going further than Sellis planned. The fountain turns out to be a portal that takes them to another world. A world that Sellis remembers visiting when she was a child. Their road trip becomes a quest for answers about her mom and family history. She grew up believing her mom was mentally ill, but was that the whole story? Unexpected animal companions join them and new relationships begin. They face perilous and frightening situations along the way. "The Fountain" touches on mental illness issues, but is also a charming and engaging tale. Come along for the ride.

• AUTHOR PATRICIA OLSON

Patricia Olson was born in North Dakota and has spent most of her life here. Her time is spent reading, writing, and researching her next book. She also spends a lot of time letting her pack of animals in and out of the house.

TRUE NORTH BY GARY ELLER

Life has always been difficult and dangerous for those living on and around the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a secret. Everyone thinks they’re only connected to their neighbors by the isolated, peculiar town they share. Orphaned Sioux Ida Florence Little Shay is determined to escape the life before her, but her course of action only draws her into a world of increasing conflict and deepening poverty. Young Fawn Breen appears as if she is from a different century. With her primitive, animalistic father as her only companion, she is forced to look after herself when she is thrust into society. Harold Peavey is an idealistic young man who finds his views of the world in severe conflict with those around him, facing ostracism by his community when he refuses to abandon his beliefs. Enduring mistakes, tragedies, secrets, and long-held grudges spanning the 1930s-1960s that have permanently marked them, these three Great Plains farm families clash together as they struggle to survive and find their way in an ever-changing world.

• AUTHOR GARY ELLER

Born and raised in Rolla, Gary Eller became a pharmacist, lived for many years in Alaska and took up writing while in his forties after earning an MFA degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Most of his writing success has come in the form of short stories including a collection "Thin Ice and Other Risks", while more recently he's published a novel "True North" which is set in North Dakota. Among his awards is a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

THIS DATING THING BY TODD FORD

What can possibly go wrong in the adult dating pool if you never splashed in the kiddie pool as a teen? Young Todd wants a better married life than his parents have, but his distracted dad and passive-aggressive mom offer little guidance. His dad’s departing concerns are morning sit-ups while wearing bright red, teeny-tiny briefs and hooking up with fellow real estate agents while his mom “protects” him from the evils of Batman and steals his peanut butter sandwiches: “You’re only feeding your pimples!” In the old-school world of the 1980s, where swiping through dating apps is not an option, adult Todd figures out this dating thing on his own. His journey begins with a payphone moment straight out of a Hollywood movie and continues through a series of near tragic date-night movie choices and an awkward hot tub encounter. After his dipsy-doodling aunt unknowingly suggests he write a personal ad (his mind works in strange ways), is he finally on the road to marital bliss?

• AUTHOR TODD FORD

Todd Ford leads two lives. By day, he’s a systems analyst for a utilities company. By night, he’s a reader, writer, movie lover, and guy on a mission to combine all three. He lives in an empty nest with his wife, Trissa, in Mandan, ND. Together, they’ve had twelve cats and two dogs.

HOPE IS THE COLOR OF THE SUN: A POET SCRAPBOOKS HER WAY BACK TO COURAGE BY ERIKA JOY DYK

Hope is the Color of the Sun is an atypical scrapbook of creative non-fiction and poetry that captures the writer's journey back to hope and light after walking through the grief of losing her mother.

• AUTHOR ERIKA JOY DYK

Erika Dyk is a North Dakotan poet and scrapbooker. She has been educated on both sides of North Dakota, graduating from Bowman High School and from North Dakota State University with a B.A. in English Education and an M.A. in English. She enjoys time traveling via writing and helping other people time travel too.

THE ROLE OF THE FULBRIGHT COORDINATOR BY DIVINE N. TARLA

Dr. Divine Tarla was awarded the Fulbright scholarship in 2016, which took him to Manhattan, Kansas. This book presents Fulbright through his lens from the selection process to the stay in the United States and home residence. It underlines the place of exchange programs in person-to-person diplomacy. The skills and knowledge he gained were shared with the family, friends, colleagues, and students from Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and beyond. Fulbright is a flagship exchange program of the US Department of State for education and culture.

• AUTHOR DIVINE N. TARLA

Dr. Divine Tarla was born in Tabenken Village in the North West Region of Cameroon. He obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Agriculture, MS in Plant Protection from the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, and a PhD. His greatest achievement is winning the African Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program in 2016 which took him to Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. He is a Lifetime Member of the Fulbright Association and actively participates in Fulbright advocacy.

"DINING AT THE DEMENTIA CAFE", LONNA WHITING'S CHAPTER IN THE ANTHOLOGY "DESERTS TO MOUNTAINTOPS: OUR COLLECTIVE JOURNEY TO (RE)CLAIMING OUR VOICE"

Deserts to Mountaintops (DTMT) is the inaugural anthology from Soul Speak, Press slated for publication in January 2023. DTMT chronicles 22 women's voices and their unique journey from the desert of self-abandonment to the mountaintop of self-love. Each chapter focuses on one woman’s specific story that recounts how she has reestablished a relationship with her intuition, reconnected with her truest self and experienced the hard-won joy of reclaiming her VOICE. The inspiration for this collection of essays, stems from the lead author, Jessica Buchanan's, own self-abandonment experience in 2011. Even though her intuition was screaming at her not to go on a project mission for her NGO in Southern Somalia , she ignored what she knew was true and went anyway. The result of silencing her truth, changed the trajectory of her life, and nearly killed her. She spent 93 days living in the deserts of Somalia at the hands of land pirates who held her hostage for a 45-million-dollar ransom demand. She was starved, beaten and abused until by order of President Obama, SEAL Team VI parachuted into the desert on a moonless night, and rescued her. While Jessica's story is wild, her experience and practice of self-abandonment is NOT unique, and in the last ten years of her healing journey, she has learned so much about herself as she has climbed the mountain back to self-love. Throughout the chapters of DTMT, readers will connect with these women's experiences as they cover themes such as overcoming abuse, alcoholism, toxic workplaces, single motherhood, mental health and suicide- just to name a few. These women have struggled to make their voices heard- and reclaimed them in a powerful way.

• AUTHOR LONNA WHITING

Lonna Whiting is a writer, editor, communications consultant and owner of lonna.co, a content agency. Since 2012, she's been helping her mother navigate early-onset dementia and shares their experience in essays and on social media to help raise awareness. Her latest work, an essay titled "Dining at the Dementia Cafe," is forthcoming in the anthology "Deserts to Mountaintops," curated by NY Times Bestselling Author and "We Should Talk About That" podcast co-host Jessica Buchanan.

WHILE THE WINDMILL WATCHED BY JACKIE PFEIFFER MCGREGOR AND JANINE PFEIFFER KNOP

Windmills have been crucial tools for the people of the plains for more than a century, harvesting first water and today, energy. In While the Windmill Watched, a windmill takes on the unique role of narrator as it chronicles the 1950s through the lives of the Pfeiffer Sisters, Jackie and Janine, as they grow up on a farm near Menoken, North Dakota. Written in four voices—each sister, the sisters together, and the windmill—the book describes how social and technological innovations that occurred mid-century played out in the daily lives of farmers, ranchers, and townspeople across the Great Plains. For further information, please check out the website whilethewindmillwatched.com and the Facebook page, “While The Windmill Watched.” An extension of the book evolved into THE 1950s FUN CHAT YouTube channel. Further extension of Windmill is the movie, “While the Windmill Watched” which is in the development stage and is being produced by Mr. Daniel Bielinski of Canticle Productions, Bismarck, ND.

• AUTHORS JACKIE PFEIFFER MCGREGOR AND JANINE PFEIFFER KNOP

The Pfeiffer Sisters grew up on a North Dakota farm 10 miles east of Bismarck near Menoken during the 1950s. They both graduated from North Dakota State University. The authors are married, each having two children and four grandchildren.

JACKIE PFEIFFER - Living on a farm taught me self-reliance and creativity, which has been beneficial wherever I have lived. The North Dakota prairie instilled in me an appreciation for uninterrupted vistas and the solitude of sparsely populated areas. With that experience as encouragement, I lived for more than 21 years on a beautiful Alaskan island and today enjoy hiking and kayaking in wild places of the northeast Washington landscape.

JANINE PFEIFFER KNOP - Dad was well-known in our area as an innovative farmer and dedicated livestock man, and always wanted to improve the quality of our livestock. From him I learned the difference that genetics and proper animal husbandry could make in the quality of livestock. And from my earliest memories, working with the livestock has been my passion and source of fulfillment.

"NOTHING REALLY HAPPENED", RUTH HETLAND'S CHAPTER IN THE ANTHOLOGY "DESERTS TO MOUNTAINTOPS: OUR COLLECTIVE JOURNEY TO (RE)CLAIMING OUR VOICE"

Deserts to Mountaintops (DTMT) is the inaugural anthology from Soul Speak, Press slated for publication in January 2023. DTMT chronicles 22 women's voices and their unique journey from the desert of self-abandonment to the mountaintop of self-love. Each chapter focuses on one woman’s specific story that recounts how she has reestablished a relationship with her intuition, reconnected with her truest self and experienced the hard-won joy of reclaiming her VOICE. The inspiration for this collection of essays, stems from the lead author, Jessica Buchanan's, own self-abandonment experience in 2011. Even though her intuition was screaming at her not to go on a project mission for her NGO in Southern Somalia , she ignored what she knew was true and went anyway. The result of silencing her truth, changed the trajectory of her life, and nearly killed her. She spent 93 days living in the deserts of Somalia at the hands of land pirates who held her hostage for a 45-million-dollar ransom demand. She was starved, beaten and abused until by order of President Obama, SEAL Team VI parachuted into the desert on a moonless night, and rescued her. While Jessica's story is wild, her experience and practice of self-abandonment is NOT unique, and in the last ten years of her healing journey, she has learned so much about herself as she has climbed the mountain back to self-love. Throughout the chapters of DTMT, readers will connect with these women's experiences as they cover themes such as overcoming abuse, alcoholism, toxic workplaces, single motherhood, mental health and suicide- just to name a few. These women have struggled to make their voices heard- and reclaimed them in a powerful way.

• AUTHOR RUTH HETLAND

Ruth Hetland grew up on a small dairy farm near Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, seventh in a family of eight children. She, her husband, and their daughter now live in Fargo, North Dakota and also enjoy spending time at their lake home near Battle Lake, Minnesota. Ruth has spent over two decades working in the software industry, in roles spanning the full software development life cycle but primarily focused in product and project management.

HND Value Statement

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or Humanities North Dakota.

However, in an increasingly polarized world, we at Humanities North Dakota believe that being open-minded is necessary to thinking critically and rationally.

Therefore, our programs and classes reflect our own open-mindedness in the inquiry, seeking, and acquiring of scholars to speak at our events and teach classes for our Public University.

To that end, we encourage our participants to join us in stepping outside our comfort zones and considering other perspectives and ideas by being open-minded while attending HND events featuring scholars who hold a variety of opinions, some being opposite of our own held beliefs.

Humanities North Dakota classes and events are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities