The Good News of Publishing a Novel, 4.19.2017
At Amazon.com, I see that my friend Jason Makansi’s novel, The Moment Before, will be out in November. It’s about “a woman and her beloved Syrian father, separated forty years earlier when he is swept…
Category: Reading Groups
The Good News of Public Libraries, 3.16.2017
This afternoon I walked eight blocks north to the Central West End’s Schlafly Library where I picked up three books by Bernard B. Fall, whom Noam Chomsky once described as “the most respected analyst and…
Coming Up
Friday 3 March: discussion of Svetlana Alexeievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, with Lori and Helen at Handlebar Restaurant Saturday 4 March: sharing with sangha on In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of…
Invitation to Memory of Fire Global Reading Circle
Danielle Mackey and I invite you to join us in reading, reflecting, and writing on Eduardo Galeano’s trilogy, Memory of Fire: Genesis, Faces & Masks, and Century of the Wind, a total of 911 pages….
The Essential Allen Ginsberg: Cafe Ventana Reading Group
“It occurs to me that I am America” –Allen Ginsberg, America Beat poet, antiwar activist, gay liberationist, free speech devotee, “First Thought, Best Thought” advocate, and cheerful Buddhist, Allen Ginsberg has been a major influence on U.S. counterculture…
Reading Du Fu
Some friends and I are reading Du Fu in David Young’s translation. Here’s what Ye Xie (1627-1703) had to say about him– “Take any one of Du Fu’s poems, or even one line, and everywhere…
2015 Chinese Poets in Translation Reading Group
Chris Wallach and I are starting a reading group in 2015 with the aim of reading one of the translations each month of such poets as Wang Wei, Han-Shan, Li Ch’ing-chao, Tu Fu, Su Tung-p’o, Bo Juyi,…
Starting Where We Are: A Writing Course on the Mind-Training Slogans via Pema Chödrön
Join us this fall for a writing course that focuses on the 59 mind-training slogans as taught by beloved Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön in her book, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living….
Reading Galeano
Lindsay Weston recently wrote me Asked if I could recommend anything to read Instantly I thought of the trilogy So long on my shelf Barely perused but Now may be the time! I sent word…
Leçon de français d’aujourd’hui
Un poème de Thich Nhat Hanh Ne dites pas, je serai parti demain, car je ne cesse de naître, aujourd’hui encore. Regardez en profondeur : je nais à chaque seconde bourgeon sur une branche printanière,…