509 E 4th Ave
Please join us for an evening reading with Peggy Herring on her book: Anna, Like Thunder.
In November 1808, the Russian ship St. Nikolai ran aground off the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula near present-day LaPush, Washington. According to historical record, the twenty-two Russians aboard came to shore and were enslaved and traded among coastal First Nations until the survivors were rescued a year and a half later. One of the Russians was eighteen-year-old Anna Petrovna Bulygina, the wife of the navigator. There are two written records of this incident—a written account from Russian fur trader Timofei Osipovich Tarakanov who was the supercargo aboard the ship, and an oral tradition as told by Quileute elder Ben Hobucket. Anna is a minor character in both accounts, but she plays a pivotal role in history. In Anna, Like Thunder, Herring blends fact and fiction to bring this remarkable woman to life. Captured, enslaved, and separated fom her husband, Anna is of course terrified, but she quickly discovers that nothing—including slavery—is as she expected. As she encounters a way of living that she never could have fathomed, she begins to question Russian imperialist aspirations and even her own beliefs. And then, in 1809, during an attempted “rescue”, she refuses help and instead encourages her rescuers to surrender, an action that set off a series of events that today illuminate an important period of history on the coast of the Olympic peninsula.
“An intimate engagement with a little-known ghost of North American history and memory.” —Jaspreet Singh, author of Helium and November
“A beautifully rendered and intimate tale of loss, discovery and redemption, Anna, Like Thunder takes readers into the heart of North American west coast Indigenous culture: the forests, beaches and ocean that embrace and sustain them. Peggy Herring writes so seamlessly that I felt like I was Russian Anna Bulygina, learning to dry salmon, following a wolf to safety, or confronting the tragic consequences of my colonial heritage on the people who’ve kept me alive and befriended me.” —Ann Eriksson, author of The Performance
Peggy Herring spent her career as a journalist with the CBC, and has worked all over Canada, as well as in Nepal, London, Dhaka, and New Delhi. She is the author of This Innocent Corner (Oolichan Books, 2010), and her short fiction has been featured in a variety of publications, including The Antigonish Review, The New Quarterly, and Prism International. Visit her at peggyherring.ca.
