Writing at Degree Zero with Zen Teacher & Poet Norman Fischer

When you get past ambition, publication, professionalism, and the culture wars, why are we writing and what is it we are given to write? And what does silence (non-language) have to do with it? In this lecture and workshop, Norman Fischer, Soto Zen priest and author of more than twenty-five books of poetry and nonfiction, will explore the relationship of silence to self, self to language, language to the process of writing, and writing as path. This will involve writing experiments, intimate discussion, and a willingness to throw away, at least for the afternoon, everything we thought we knew and open ourselves up to the surprise that can only occur when we know we don’t know what we are doing.

Sponsored by the Departments of English, Comparative Literature, and Religion; the Chaplains’ Office, and the Lecture Committee