Ever since I changed the course of my life, I have been living with my family – Emīls, Kristians and Niklāvs, a cat and an occasional dog (until on Sea Library’s 5th birthday our own dog – border collie Nemo arrived!) – in an old wooden house in the coastal city of Jūrmala, Latvia. We live on a dune peninsula, between River Lielupe and the Gulf of Riga.
White beaches stretched for 24 kilometers and the ever-changing sea slowly changed me. I started to read as much as I could about our blue planet and in 2018 I opened a Sea Library with 100 books. Four years later there are more than 700 titles in Latvian, English, Russian, German and French.
It is a room full of books in our hundred-year-old house for anyone to visit. I want to make this unique collection, donated and bought from all over the world, as accessible as possible. You can borrow by post or come and visit.
Now I am writing my own book about the bumpy road to the Sea Library. The idea for the book grew out of this very personal essay. Since 2024 I am represented by Allison Remcheck Pernetti, Stimola Literary Studio.
Meanwhile, you can read and also listen about this magical place in press: Sirene Magazine, BBC Radio 4 and others. Your support would help to keep the library afloat.
In the summer solstice of 2022, I started working at the National Library of Latvia while still steering my own ship.
I’m off for a swim now, but you can always find me here.
Anna x
Sea Library 