links – writers
Alphabetized collection of links to great writers, poets, thinkers… interesting people in general. I’m adding new material constantly. Trying to.
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Edward Abbey… a prickly, outspoken critic of society, industry, and bureaucracy; novelist, naturalist, anarchist, environmental activist. An eccentic, eloquent spokesman for the desert and the American West.
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)… classical haiku master. Here is a complete translation of his haibun masterpiece Narrow Road to the Deep North and here is a brief biography. There are dozens if not hundreds of articles and poems to explore.
Joseph Campbell… prolific scholar of comparative mythology and religion. See also the Joseph Campbell Foundation, or an excellent essay on his life and works here.
Annie Dillard… “I am no scientist, I am a wanderer with a background in theology and a penchant for quirky facts.” Here is an interesting study on her famous book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
Mircea Eliade… brilliant and influential Romanian scholar and professor of world religions, mythology, comparative studies. Author of Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History, and many more.
Langston Hughes… jazz-influenced American poet, playwright, essayist, and novelist; instrumental in the 1920s Harlem Renaissance.
Birgitta Jonsdottir… of Reykjavik, Iceland. The editor and publisher of my first poetry book, she also has an extensive website full of her own paintings, poetry, writing on Norse mythology, and more.
Jack Kerouac… (to whom I make reference many times in these pages) …author of the famous On the Road; reluctant “King of the Beats;” prolific Catholic-Buddhist poet, haikuist, novelist, traveler, thinker, and drinker.
Prolific Korean poet and writer Ko Un… “not only a major spokesperson for all of Korean culture, but a voice for Planet Earth Watershed as well… Because of their purity, their nervy clarity, and their heart of compassion, his poems are not only Korean —they belong to the world.” – Gary Snyder
John Lent… my inspirational 1990’s creative writing professor at Okanagan University College in Kelowna, British Columbia. Here are details of his chapbook Black Horses, Cobalt Suns; here is his music group’s website.
Tim Lilburn… Canadian essayist, philosopher, mystic, and ecological thinker; writer of six collections of poetry. Here is a brief interview, and here is some basic biographical information.
Barry Lopez… meditative, poetic natural-history and fiction writer. Here is his profound essay A Literature of Place, which emphasizes (among other things) the importance of ”a storied relationship to a place rather than a solely sensory awareness of it; and living in some sort of ethical unity with a place.” The same page contains excellent links to other literature and educational material.
Thomas Merton… author, poet, Catholic monk. A prolific writer who practiced and studied contemplation; who attempted to synthesize Eastern and Western philosophies and monastic traditions. Visit the Merton Insitute for Contemplative Living or Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey.
Robert Pirsig… philosopher and author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila.
Neil Postman… social and cultural critic; educator, author, and professor; media and technology analyst. Here is one example of his brilliant thinking and writing: Of Luddites, Learning, and Life. Here are a students’ recollections of Postman, written after he passed away in 2003.
Charles Potts… whose books I discovered at the Gwangju International Center in South Korea. I later had the opportunity to meet Mr. Potts as he was speaking at the GIC. He is associated with both the Temple Bookstore and the Poet’s Encyclopedia.
Paul Shepard… nature writer, ecological philosopher, anthropologist, historian, mythical thinker. “Much of what we value in contemporary thought about ‘nature and culture’ grew up in the seedbed of Paul Shepard’s thinking.” – Barry Lopez. Here is a more academic website; here is an essay commemorating his passing in 1996.
Gary Snyder… Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, ecology writer, creative mythologist. At Literary History, a great selection of biographical material, articles, poems, and more. I already linked to this page elsewhere but here it is again, on Modern American Poetry. Litkicks focuses more on Snyder as a Beat poet (although personally I like to think of him as a healthy escape from the Beat generation)… also associated with deep ecology. (Here are the unifying principles of the deep ecology movement.) NEW – here is a series of very early Snyder articles and audio files.
Henry David Thoreau… classic American ecological philosopher; Transcendentalist writer; inspiration to political activists and back-to-nature advocates alike. Interesting websites include Concord’s own Thoreau Society, and the Thoreau Reader.
Gerald Vizenor… Chippewa novelist, journalist, and poet; Trickster scholar and inventor of words. Although he’s been writing for a long time, I first “discovered” him in a 2007 English class at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. (Extensive Trickster readings are available here and here.)