SELECTED FOR
November 3, 2010 Coldfront
This Morning Feature

from An invitation to a struggle

BY Tsering Wangmo Dhompa

Consider the stories we tell, the moral
or meaning lost over time. Perhaps it is culture
hindering the dog from learning
good etiquette. Colour as a cause. Naturally,
in a volte-face we can say it is a native’s
compliment because we advertise
for a fairer tint. In stories of war
the other is chimera, a shapeless
behemoth in need of a lesson. Shades
of white and black are disavowed
in the color chart in the industry
of happiness because we mind our manners
at home. Fatigue has lain the empire low.

 

Biography

TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA is the author of three titles from Apogee Press: In the Absent Everyday (2005), Rules of the House (2002, finalist for the Asian American Literary Awards in 2003) and My rice tastes like the lake (forthcoming). She received her MA from University of Massachussetts and her MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Other publications include two chapbooks, In Writing the Names (A.bacus, Potes & Poets Press, 2000) and Recurring Gestures (Tangram Press, 2000). Wangmo Dhompa received a grant from the Cultural Equity Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Galen Rowell Fund. A former fellow at MacDowell Colony and Hedgebrook, she was raised in the Tibetan exile communities of Nepal and India. She now lives in San Francisco.

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