Tsering Yangzom Lama

Artist Statement

I see my writing as a way to access and understand the unknowable past. A way to fight against the invisibility of my family's and people's experiences. For centuries, my country and my people have served as a canvas for the fantasies and stories of other people. But Tibetans have yet to tell our own stories to global audiences. As my country is wiped off maps, as our histories are revised by a colonial occupier, I feel that the creative work of storytelling is a vital terrain of struggle and remembrance. Right now, I'm particularly interested in diving into Tibetan Buddhist cosmologies within the tantric mandala teaching. Comparing that form of traditional mapping to colonial mapping techniques, I'm interested in showing the competing ideologies and strategies of different worldviews and powers.

Tsering_Yangzom_Lama_We_Measure_the_Earth_with_our_Bodies

Bio

Tsering Yangzom Lama’s debut novel, WE MEASURE THE EARTH WITH OUR BODIES, is a New York Times Summer Reads Pick and a finalist for The Scotiabank Giller Prize, and longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and The Toronto Book Award. She holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and a BA in Creative Writing and International Relations from the University of British Columbia. She currently lives in Vancouver, Canada.

tseringlama.com