Canyon Sam is an author, performance artist, and Tibetan rights activist.
[1] Her honors include the 2010 PEN American Center's Open Book Award, a National Endowment for the Arts scholarship, a San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist's grant in literature, and a Screenwriting Fellowship from the Center for Asian American Media, among others.
in creative writing from San Francisco State University.
[7] In 2011, a short documentary about her life premiered, titled A Woman Named Canyon Sam.
[8][9] Canyon Sam also created a one-woman show called The Dissident, about her travels in China and Tibet and her human rights work with Buddhist nuns, which played at the Walker Art Center, the Asia Society, New York, and the Solo Mio festival, and headlined the National Women's Theater Festival.