SKY TRAIN:
TIBETAN WOMEN ON THE EDGE OF HISTORY
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Media Praise for
Sky Train
Dalai Lama

The Diane Rehm Show guest on February 23.

Publishers Weekly called Sky Train a "remarkable book. . . . Visceral and deeply felt, this narrative deserves a read from anyone interested in human rights and the untold stories of oppressed women everywhere."

Canyon Sam was a guest on San Francisco's CBS KPIX Channel 5 "Bay Sunday" program. Watch her discuss Sky Train.

The San Francisco Chronicle called Sky Train a "notable new book" and also featured it in a list of great new fall titles.

Finally, the Chronicle listed Canyon Sam in its lineup of Lit Quake readers here.

Ordering info
$24.95 paperback (9780295989532)
Published: October 2009

Subject Listing: Memoir, Asian Studies, Women's Studies, Tibet

Bibliographic information: 278 pp., 30 illus., 6 x 9 in.

Territorial rights: World rights except in Southeast Asia

Please contact Rachael Levay with questions at (617) 871.0295 or to order, contact HFS at 1-800-537-5487.
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Hello!

I am very, very excited to announce that Canyon Sam, author of Sky Train, has been awarded the PEN Prize's annual Open Book Award, honoring books by writers of color.

For more on the prize, including PEN's award announcement, please see their website.

If stores would like to order stock, please feel free to get in touch with any questions. I've also included below Canyon's reviews to date, so if there's anything I can help with, or if you'd like to host an event for her, please let me know!

Rachael Levay, Sales & Publicity Manager
University of Washington Press
(617) 871.0295
[email protected]
Sky TrainSky Train:
Tibetan Women on the Edge of History

By Canyon Sam
With a Foreword by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama


Winner of the 2010 PEN Open Book Award

Guest on NPR's Diane Rehm Show

"[A] remarkable book. . . . Visceral and deeply felt, this narrative deserves a read from anyone interested in human rights and the untold stories of oppressed women everywhere." -Publishers Weekly

"A miracle of a book." -Maxine Hong Kingston, National Book Award winning author of The Woman Warrior

"A book that is sure to illuminate a Tibet so many of us have been longing to know." - Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

NOW AVAILABLE
 
Canyon Sam is a Chinese American who, in the eighties, went to China in search of a deeper understanding of her heritage. While there, she traveled to Tibet and discovered a true sense of home and belonging with the Buddhist people and, in particular, the women of the Tibetan and Buddhist culture. She found herself extremely close to four women -- a child bride, a gulag survivor, a visionary educator, and a freedom fighter -- and has woven their stories into Sky Train. In the book she finally comes to term with her own past and forges a lifelong connection to Tibet and the Buddhist faith and, in addition, chronicles the vast changes to Tibetan people and landscapes by a greater connection with the Chinese through the new high-speed "sky train" that connects Lhasa to China.

Gracefully connecting the women's poignant histories to larger cultural, political, and spiritual themes, the author comes full circle, finding wisdom and wholeness even as she acknowledges Tibet's irreversible changes.

Canyon Sam is a San Francisco writer, performance artist, and Tibet activist. Her one-woman show The Dissident was critically acclaimed in the Village Voice and the Boston Globe. This is her first book.

More praise for Sky Train

"Canyon Sam's Sky Train powerfully moves the heart, as it brings to life deep truths about our world today, about Tibet, the land and people and especially its outstanding women. Just as important is the author's own revelatory discovery of 'Tibet' as a compassionate, wise, and down to earth state-of-mind essential to the survival of the whole world. Words cannot express how wonderful is this honest, generous, and perceptive book." -Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University

"Through the experiences of older Tibetan women, the author offers a captivating journey spanning half a century and several countries. Sky Trainconveys women's lessons of community-building, generosity, faith, and determination. A beautiful, moving, riveting book." -Valerie Matsumoto, UCLA

"This book about the Dharma of connection, of companioning, of compassion, has strengthened my own devotion." -Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life

"It is Canyon Sam's love for Tibet -- its culture and its people -- that makes this book so special. An important work . . . poignant and inspiring." -Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness