To write her celebrated debut novel “Sivulliq: Ancestor,” author Lily Tuzroyluke learned from elders, tribal leaders and whalers to craft the historic thriller set in Alaska's northwest Arctic.
Lily Tuzroyluke's debut novel, “Sivulliq: Ancestor,” was released earlier this year.
One of those epidemics, smallpox, provides the context for Tuzroyluke’s novel “Sivulliq: Ancestor,” which has been attracting considerable attention in Alaskan literary circles since its publication earlier this year. Set in Alaska’s northwestern Arctic in 1893, the story follows an Inupiaq woman named Kayaliruk on a desperate trek across land and sea to rescue her young daughter Samaruna from the captain of a whaling ship who has kidnapped the child to take as his own.
Point Hope is the place Tuzroyluke calls home, even if she was born and raised in Anchorage and presently resides there. Her father was Inupiaq, born in the village, while her mother is Tlingit and Nisga’a. This heritage drove her academic pursuits when she attended the University of Alaska. “My first love was tribal government, and that was essentially my goal in going to school and getting a degree in justice,” she said.
“It was a really hard move for me personally,” she said about leaving a job and community she loved. But once in Anchorage, it was her son who provided the ultimate inspiration for her to realize her own dream. “I really credit my son in giving me the courage to become a full-time writer,” Tuzroyluke said. “There’s so much that we’ve accomplished together, both me and him. He’s always showing me what he’s capable of.
“I wanted them all to be in the first person,” Tuzroyluke said of the three characters whose voices narrate the book. “Viewing this story from someone who’s oppressed, viewing it from someone who’s exploited or impoverished, they see the world much differently than someone who is born into wealth.”
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