Eastside Publicity Guru Releases a ‘Guidebook for Living’
Eastside Publicity Guru Releases a ‘Guidebook for Living’‘Life at the Dumpling’ by Trisha Cole is inspired by her family’s home in Glassell Park
MICHELE MCPHEE • MAY 15, 2024
In 2004, Trisha Cole and Bruce Walrath pulled up outside a ramshacklehouse in Glassell Park on a narrow street on the crest of a hill and fell in love. Trisha's parents? Not so much. "This place is a dump,"her mom sighed under her breath. Bruce quickly retorted: "It's not a dump. It's a dumpling." The namestuck.Two decades later-Trisha Cole, a California native and longtime public relations executive, has written abeautiful ode to her family's life at that little house on the hill: "Life at the Dumpling." Filled with handdrawn art, recipes, inspirational quotes, stories and tips on places to go from a woman who has beeneverywhere in her line of work, the book is "a guide for good living" and a love letter to all things LosAngeles that started as a newsletter she snail mailed to friends during the COVID lockdown.What started as a way to stay sane burgeoned into a mailing list of hundreds of people who wanted tolearn how to "live the dumpling life." The newsletters were filled with tips, recipes, and intimate recountsof gatherings with friends and family. A readerfavorite centered on an impromptu community created byTrisha, Bruce and their teenagers, Faye, 17, and Jem, 14, along with another family, who "took thedumpling life on the road," for a communal living experiment they pulled off at a vacant boys camp inMaine.Now those first twenty newsletters are the basis for Cole's beautiful keepsake book, which for herembodies "a metaphor" for life."I have come to see now that it’s not about being so perfect or polished, and instead focuses a lot more onthe filling–what is on the inside. It’s about living as thoughtfully as we can, and observing and listening,and taking care of the people around you," Cole toldLos Angelesin an exclusive interview. "There’s lotsof ‘meat’ in this dumpling of a book youhold and it’s yours for the taking. If you are a memoir reader,then perhaps that is what you will see here. You may find it full of information that marks lots of historicmoments in our lives. If you love inspiring quotes and poems they are here, too. I’ve shared tips on booksto read, places to go and lots of “how to” information on a variety of topics. There are recipes, games,thoughtful musings and more."
