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Author shares spiritual revelation
Jon Turk to appear at Maria's
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Photo by Courtesy of St. Martin's Press
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Courtesy of Misha Petrov
Author Jon Turk, fourth from left, poses with a nomadic family in 2004 on the tundra northeast of Talovka, Russia. Turk chronicles five trips to Siberia in his book The Raven’s Gift.
Meet the author
The Raven’s Gift, by Jon Turk. St. Martin’s Press, 336 pages, $27.99. Turk will give a presentation and sign copies of the book at 6:30 p.m. today at Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave., 247-1438.
For more than 40 years, Turk has traveled the globe tackling every adventure he could when time allowed. He's cheated death on mountaintops and oceans worldwide, including a harrowing trip around Africa's Cape Horn in a kayak for his 50th birthday. Between trips, Turk found time to write almost 30 books, many of them academic texts. He holds a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Colorado, so flighty he is not.
With January's publication of The Raven's Gift: A Scientist, A Shaman and Their Remarkable Journey through the Siberian Wilderness, Turk often finds himself defending his career and reputation in light of the personal revelation he shares in the book.
“My editor came up with the subtitle because she wanted it to be credible," Turk said last week from Santa Fe, where he was working on a film project.
“With a science background, I came to the shamanic concept with scientific skepticism, and it shows my transition to someone who's willing to embrace earth wisdoms, and there's some importance to that."
The Raven's Gift is Turk's story that began with a cross-Pacific kayak trip in 2000 that resulted in his book In the Wake of the Jomon. During that trip, Turk's party was grounded by a storm near the village of Vyvenka.
“A Koryak woman met us and said 'welcome - we were expecting you. Grandmother created this storm because she wants to talk to you,'" Turk said.
“I wrote it in my journal but didn't publish it in the Jomon book because I didn't want to be labeled a crackpot. But we were strung out, cold and hungry and weren't in a critical mood, and we met the old woman the following day."
The old woman was a Koryak shaman named Moolynaut, and it was she who inspired The Raven's Gift and changed Turk's life. After an initial meeting with Moolynaut, the party left but returned the next spring, the second of five trips Turk would make to the remote Siberian outpost. Turk credits Moolynaut for healing his pelvis, which he had shattered years before in an avalanche while mountain climbing. He re-aggravated the old injury during the 2001 visit when his snowmobile broke through some thin ice.
“I'm muscling it out, slip on a rock and boom - I can't walk," he said.
“That sets up the narrative of the book; if something's broken on the tundra, you fix it, whether it's a belt, your leg or your pelvis. Oleg, a hunter from the village, said the grandmother will fix my pelvis. She did, and they both became my spiritual leaders."
Turk will appear at Maria's Bookshop today to discuss the book and sign copies, but don't expect a typical book signing with a smile and a handshake. Turk shares slides and stories, and he can get rather animated when talking about the subjects he loves.
“I used to work in street circus, and I've been to enough signings where the book's between the author and the audience and he just reads the dumb thing," Turk said.
“So when I set up this tour I said 'I want this to be fun.' I do enough to fill up about 45 to 50 minutes and hopefully make some people laugh."
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