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Writing on Empty: Daylong Workshop with Natalie Goldberg

photo by Mitsue Nagase

Sunday, February 18
10:00am -5pm MT

(lunch served on site by Mountain Cloud)

Join Natalie Goldberg – prolific author, artist, Zen teacher, and friend to Mountain Cloud – for this writing intensive workshop. Bring a notebook and fast-writing pen. You will learn to use writing as a zen practice. No prior writing experience is necessary. You will learn to trust your own mind and gain confidence in your experiences, realizing their richness as subjects for writing. This offers an alternative to sitting meditation for examining your own mind. We will provide a vegetarian lunch.

To attend in person, please read and follow our COVID-19 Protocols for MCZC’s current policies on masks, vaccinations, and testing. To register for this event, please go to the bottom of the page.

 

Agenda
10am–1pm MT – Teaching, writing, and sitting meditation

1pm- 2pm MT -Break – Lunch served onsite by Mountain Cloud

2pm–5pm MT – Writing, reading, listening

Participation Fee

  • In Person – $125
  • Online – $99
  • Needs-Based Scholarships available at registration -(MCZC will cover 40% of the cost for those otherwise unable to join)
  • BIPOC-identifying participants can join for free to support voices historically and systemically excluded from writing communities.

About Natalie Goldberg

Natalie Goldberg is a poet, teacher, writer, and painter. A student of Zen Buddhism for twenty-four years, she trained intensively with Katagiri Roshi for twelve years, and is ordained in the Order of Interbeing with Thich Nhat Hanh. Natalie Goldberg teaches writing workshops nationally based on the methods presented in Writing Down the Bones. Natalie Goldberg is the author of fifteen books, including Writing Down the Bones, which has sold two million copies and has been translated into 20 languages. Her most recent book is Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage To The Heart and Homeland of Haiku. She has also written Let the Whole Thundering World Come Home: a memoir (Shambhala 2018): the beloved Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America, a memoir about her Zen teacher. She lives in northern New Mexico.

This workshop is inspired by Natalie’s book, Writing Down the BonesSee details below.

With insight, humor, and practicality, Natalie Goldberg inspires writers and would-be writers to take the leap into writing skillfully and creatively. She offers suggestions, encouragement, and solid advice on many aspects of the writer’s craft: on writing from “first thoughts” (keep your hand moving, don’t cross out, just get it on paper), on listening (writing is ninety percent listening; the deeper you listen, the better you write), on using verbs (verbs provide the energy of the sentence), on overcoming doubts (doubt is torture; don’t listen to it)—even on choosing a restaurant in which to write.  Goldberg sees writing as a practice that helps writers comprehend the value of their lives. The advice in her book, provided in short, easy-to-read chapters with titles that reflect the author’s witty approach (“Writing Is Not a McDonald’s Hamburger,” “Man Eats Car,” “Be an Animal”), will inspire anyone who writes—or who longs to.

Date
February 18
Time
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Event Categories
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Address
Mountain Cloud Zen Center
7241 Old Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87505 United States
Phone
(505) 303-0036
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