The Northrup Frye Literary Festival is planning to create a bronze sculpture of the Moncton-born literary giant. Heritage Canada has awarded the festival with $25,000 to help with the project.

Dawn Arnold, the chair of the literary festival, said the sculpture will help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Frye’s birth.

Arnold said the project is going ahead even though more money still needs to be raised.

It will be a life-size piece of public art, depicting Frye sitting on a park bench, reading a book.

“The vision is that he'd be sitting there, people, visitors will come to our town and get their picture taken beside him, kids can climb on his head,” Arnold said.

“I mean it would be a solid, enduring presence.”

The Frye Festival is accepting tenders for the sculpture until Dec. 21 and it hopes to unveil the sculpture by next July.

Arnold said the project is important to honouring one of the city’s most famous citizens.

“I just really believe that public art is vital to living in a community, it makes it livable and enhances it in so many ways,” Arnold said.

“So I feel very confident that Monctonians will step up and help us out with this because you know he was a very famous Monctonian.”