2025-05-28 – May Bokprat: The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens with author Barbara Sjoholm (Online)

Schedule: 

Instructor: 

Location: 

Dr. Maren Johnson, Luther College's Associate Professor of Nordic Studies and Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies Director, facilitates a monthly bokprat, discussing Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life. Join us in May for a discussion of The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens with author Barbara Sjoholm.

Norwegian-born Dagny Bergland and her husband arrive in turn-of-the century Port Townsend, Washington, after years of sailing their merchant ship around the globe. They’re just in time for the Yukon Gold Rush and the arrival of a group of Sámi reindeer herders from Lapland on their way to Alaska to supply the ill-prepared miners. Dagny’s journals, beginning in 1897, tell a fresh and riveting history of the Pacific Northwest and its immigrants. A novel of friendship, love, loss, and motherhood, The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens is the story of a remarkable woman who learns to steer a new course in a new country.

Supplies:

Registrants should secure their own copy of the book (available for purchase soon through the Vesterheim Museum Store) and have read it prior to the discussion. Students will need to provide a computer, laptop, or tablet with a camera and mic as well as a fast, reliable internet connection.

Special Instructions:  

When registering for the class, please make sure to use the mailing and email addresses you'd like the Zoom meeting invitations sent to. You will receive links to the Zoom sessions by email sometime during the week prior to the class. If this class is a gift, please sign up with the recipient's mailing and email addresses or be prepared to forward the kit and all communications.

Enrollment Deadline: 

May 14, 2025

Click Here to learn more about instructor Dr. Maren Anderson Johnson.

Vesterheim’s Bokprat classes are supported in part by a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund from Bruce Gjovig from Grand Forks, North Dakota. 

Vesterheim’s 2025 online programming is supported in part by a generous gift to the Vesterheim Annual Fund from Sons of Norway - Noreg Lodge 3-466.