Leslie Scalapino Lecture in Innovative Poetics with Tsering Wangmo Dhompa: "Writing in code: a poetics of Liberation and Bardo"

Leslie Scalapino Final Poster

The Leslie Scalapino Lecture invites contemporary writers to engage in critical analysis of innovative poetry, essays, plays and cross-genre work primarily by women-identifying poets. The series also serves as an opportunity for our guest writers to present their work in the spirit exemplified by Leslie Scalapino’s own visionary writing.

This year’s guest is Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, the author of The Politics of Sorrow, published by Columbia University Press (2025). She has several collections of poetry: My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, In the Absent Everyday and Rules of the House (all from Apogee Press, Berkeley). Dhompa’s first non-fiction book, A Home to Tibet was published by Penguin, India in 2014. She is an Associate Professor of English at Villanova University

Tsering’s lecture will be on the subject of “Writing in code: a poetics of Liberation and Bardo”

The lecture will take place roughly between 7:00–7:30pm, with a brief intermission, followed by a 20–25 minute reading of her creative work, followed by a q&a with the audience!