Anna Nerkagi

'''Anna Pavlovna Nerkagi''' is a Nenets writer, novelist, and social activist of the Nenets people in Siberia, writing in the Russian language.

== Biography == Anna Pavlovna Nerkagi<ref name="dialogues">{{cite book|last1=Hardy Aiken|first1=Susan|title=Dialogues. Exsoviet and American Women|date=1994|publisher=Duke University Press|location=University of Michigan|pages=285–311|isbn=9780822313755|edition=Digitized 28 Feb 2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hLRZAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=19 August 2016}}</ref> was born on February 15, 1951, on the Yamal Peninsula, near the Kara Sea coast in West Siberia, Russia.<ref name="sustain"/> In 1958, at the age of six, she was removed from her parents by the Soviet authorities and forced to live in a boarding school, where the indigenous languages and native culture were banned.<ref name="sustain">{{cite book|last1=Kasten|first1=Erich|last2=de Graaf|first2=Tjeerd|title=Sustaining Indigenous Knowledge: Learning Tools and Community Initiatives for Preserving Endangered Languages and Local Cultural Heritage|date=2013|publisher=BoD – Books on Demand|isbn=9783942883122|pages=186}}</ref> She was only allowed to visit her parents during holidays.<ref name="dialogues"/> In 1974, she graduated from the Geology Institute at Tyumen Technical University.<ref name="dialogues"/>

Nerkagi debuted as a writer with the autobiographic ''Aniko of the Nogo clan'' in 1977.<ref name="wk">{{cite book|author1=Alexander Vaschenko |author2=Claude Clayton Smith |author3=N. Scott Momaday |title=The Way of Kinship: An Anthology of Native Siberian Literature |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=9781452915463 |pages=200–201}}</ref> She writes in the Russian language.<ref>{{cite news|language=fr |url=http://www.liberation.fr/cahier-special/1998/08/07/a-suivre-voyage-chez-les-nenetses-de-siberie-5-quelques-questions-a-vladimir-ilitch-le-nom-des-samoy_245100 |title=Voyage chez les Nénètses de Sibérie (5) |first=Jean-Pierre |last=Thibaudat |newspaper=Libération |date=7 August 1998 |accessdate=19 August 2016}}</ref> In 1978, known for publishing ''Aniko'', she became a member of the Writer's Union.<ref name="dialogues"/> She left Tyumen in 1980 and returned to the nomadic way of life in the Yamal Peninsula, where she lives with her husband.<ref name="dialogues"/> In 1990, she started the Tundra School for Nenets Children.<ref name="sustain"/> She currently lives and works near the village Laborovaya in the Yamal tundra, educating Nenets children.<ref name="wk"/>

In 2012, a documentary film about Nerkagi's life, directed by Ekaterina Golovnya, won the Grand Prix at the Radonezh film festival in Russia.<ref>{{cite news|language=ru |url=https://www.miloserdie.ru/article/anna-nerkagi-nauchitsya-lyubit-povsednevnost/ |first=Anastasia |last=Otroshenko |title=Анна Неркаги: научиться любить повседневность |publisher=miloserdie.ru |date=5 February 2015 |accessdate=19 August 2016}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==

* ''Aniko of the Nogo clan'', 1977 * ''Ilir'', 1979 * ''The White Yagel'', 1986 * ''The Horde'', 1992-1998 (dedicated to the memory of the poet Daniil Andreyev)<ref name="wk"/> * ''White Arctic Moss'', written in 1994, published unabridged in 1996 and in English translation as ''White Moss'' in 2026 (a sequel to ''Aniko of the Nogo clan'')<ref name="dialogues"/>

== References == {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nerkagi, Anna}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Nenets people Category:Russian women novelists Category:20th-century Russian novelists Category:20th-century Russian women writers Category:People from Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Category:Indigenous women of Siberia