Combining meditation in the Zen tradition with the practice of imaginative writing, Writing As A Wisdom Project invites intimate and creative study of the mind. Engaging playfully with language, we write together from prompts and read aloud, listen, and respond to one another’s words. Our writings and responses are explorations, and our conversations are based in imaginative insight rather than craft or critique. The day is appropriate for participants at any level of literary or meditation experience. Meditation guidance will be offered as needed.
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Catherine Gammon is a writer and Soto Zen priest, ordained in 2005 by Tenshin Reb Anderson of San Francisco Zen Center, where she trained for twelve years. Catherine’s recent novel is The Martyrs, The Lovers, and her story collection The Gunman and the Carnival is forthcoming in 2024. Her previous novels are China Blue, Sorrow, and Isabel Out of the Rain. Before beginning residential Zen training, Catherine served on the MFA faculty of the University of Pittsburgh, and since serving as Shuso (head student) at Green Dragon Temple/Green Gulch Farm in 2010, she has led retreats and given teachings in Zen and writing in the U.K., in Brooklyn, in Pittsburgh, in Massachusetts, and at SFZC’s Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. She practices, writes, and lives again in Pittsburgh, with her garden and her cat.