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A home in Tibet – Sikyong launches book by a Tibetan woman writer

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DHARAMSHALA, September 6: The exile Tibetan Prime Minister Dr Lobsang Sangay launched a book titled A Home in Exile by US based Tibetan writer Tsering Wangmo Dhompa on Monday.

The book launch was attended, among others, by the Tibetan Parliament’s Deputy Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, Director of Tibet Policy Institute Thupten Samphel, Tibetan Parliamentarians, writers and visit foreign students.

Speaking at the book launch, Sikyong Sangay, who had known Wangmo since her college days described her as a “very good student” and said that he is looking forward to read her book.

A Home in Tibet is a daughter’s haunting tribute to a mother and a homeland. A story about the love between a mother and a daughter who only had each other as family and refuge, it gestures to the journeys made by those from their lands, and the dreams of daughters. The book is published by Penguin India, a leading publishing house in India.

Tsering Wangmo Dhompa is perhaps the first Tibetan female poet to be published in English. She received her MA from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Her first book of poems, Rules of the House, published by Apogee Press in 2002 was a finalist for the Asian American Literary Awards in 2003. Other publications include My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, In the Absent Every day, and two chapbooks: In Writing the Names and Recurring Gestures. In Letter For Love she delivered her first short story.

Wangmo read selective sections from the book, and also answered questions from the audience. She said she approached publishers in the US but did not come to an agreement as the publishers wanted some changes to be made to the content which she was not willing. “So I wrote to Penguin India and they agreed to publish it while retaining the content.”

Wangmo will be present at a launch of the book at Moon River cafe, D-16 Defence Colony, New Delhi, on September 9, 2013.

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