Tsering Yangzom Lama is a Tibetan writer based in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, whose debut novel ''We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies'' was published in 2022. She was born and raised in a Tibetan refugee community in Nepal before immigrating to Canada and then the United States. Lama received a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and international relations from the University of British Columbia , and an MFA in writing from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She has been a resident at the

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

, the

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) is a residential artist community in Amherst, Virginia, USA. Since 1971, VCCA has offered residencies of varying lengths with flexible scheduling for international artists, writers, and composers at ...

, and the

Vermont Studio Center The Vermont Studio Center (VSC) is a non-profit arts organization located in the town of Johnson, Vermont. It conducts the largest fine arts and writing residency program in the United States, with a significant population of international artis ...

. She was a 2018

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

Scholar. ''We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies'', inspired in part by her own experiences, tells the story of two Tibetan refugee sisters who settle in Canada. The novel was shortlisted for the 2022

Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...

, and longlisted for the inaugural

Carol Shields Prize for Fiction The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is a North American literary award, created in 2020 to honour literature by women.Scottie Andrew"A new literary prize will award more than $100,000 to a North American writer. The only criteria? No men". CNN, Feb ...

in 2023.Deborah Dundas
"5 Canadians nominated for first Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for women and non-binary writers, worth $150,000 (U.S.)"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', March 8. 2023.

References

21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian women novelists Canadian writers of Asian descent Canadian people of Tibetan descent Living people Columbia University School of the Arts alumni University of British Columbia alumni Novelists from Vancouver Year of birth missing (living people) {{Canada-writer-stub