The Zen of Writing with Natalie Goldberg

Program Description

This dialogue is a very personal exploration into the life of one of our most popular authors on the subject of writing. It overflows with stories about her family, her schoolteachers, her grandmother and her Zen master, the place she lives now and places she has visited, pilgrimages she has made and spiritual lessons she has gleaned–even what it’s like to be a bestselling author. Throughout runs the thread of how a writer becomes a writer–not just the basic rules of “keep your hand moving; be specific; go for the jugular,” etc., which she also shares here–but the story of how the life process of a writer enriches and shines through their writings. “Underneath it all,” she says, “everybody has a longing to express themselves, and to connect with themselves.” And here we can see just how that process occurs.

Goldberg is the author of Writing Down the Bones (Shambhala 1986) and Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America (Bantam 1993).

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• Why we long to express ourselves
• How writing helps us to connect with our deeper self
• How can we begin the process of writing
• What are many influences in Goldberg’s writings
• How writing is more than observing basic rules
• How making a pilgrimage deepens our lives

Program Number: 2376                 Host: Michael Toms                Interview Date: 3/25/1993