The Wolf's Reading List
Books by Sangharakshita and other Triratna teachers and writers
The Religion of Art (Windhorse Publications)
In this collection of essays, Sangharakshita discusses how art, like religion, can challenge our perceptions, awareness and experience of truth. The new edition (2010) has a valuable introduction by Dhivan.
Writing Your Way and The Poet's Way by Manjusvara (Windhorse Publications)
In these two books, the much-missed Manjusvara, co-founder of Wolf at the Door, guides and inspires writing practice with reflections, activities to get you going and advice on the craft.
In this collection of essays, Sangharakshita discusses how art, like religion, can challenge our perceptions, awareness and experience of truth. The new edition (2010) has a valuable introduction by Dhivan.
Writing Your Way and The Poet's Way by Manjusvara (Windhorse Publications)
In these two books, the much-missed Manjusvara, co-founder of Wolf at the Door, guides and inspires writing practice with reflections, activities to get you going and advice on the craft.
William Stafford
The Way it Is: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2006)
Includes most of Stafford's classic poems, including 'Travelling Through the Dark'.
Writing the Australian Crawl (University of Michigan Press, 1978), You Must Revise Your Life (1986), The Answers are Inside the Mountains (2003)
These three books of essays and interviews are the best source for Stafford's subtle and luminous wisdom on writing and the writing life.
Urthona
A Triratna magazine that focuses on the arts from a Buddhist perspective, Urthona is edited by Ratnagarbha, and appears annually with many fine articles, reviews, lavish illustrations and several pages of poetry. Go to www.urthona.com to find out more.
Includes most of Stafford's classic poems, including 'Travelling Through the Dark'.
Writing the Australian Crawl (University of Michigan Press, 1978), You Must Revise Your Life (1986), The Answers are Inside the Mountains (2003)
These three books of essays and interviews are the best source for Stafford's subtle and luminous wisdom on writing and the writing life.
Urthona
A Triratna magazine that focuses on the arts from a Buddhist perspective, Urthona is edited by Ratnagarbha, and appears annually with many fine articles, reviews, lavish illustrations and several pages of poetry. Go to www.urthona.com to find out more.
Other Guides
Natalie Goldberg
Writing Down the Bones (Shambala Publications, 1986), Wild Mind (Rider, 2009), The True Secret of Writing (Atria, 2013)
Natalie Goldberg, herself a Zen Buddhist, has been a great inspiration to many Buddhist writers. In these three books and others she presents many engaging writing activities and dispenses much wisdom on the writing life.
Julia Cameron
The Artist's Way (Pan, 1995)
A book that has helped many writers and other creative artists to see their art as a spiritual practice and apply themselves to it that way.
Natalie Goldberg, herself a Zen Buddhist, has been a great inspiration to many Buddhist writers. In these three books and others she presents many engaging writing activities and dispenses much wisdom on the writing life.
Julia Cameron
The Artist's Way (Pan, 1995)
A book that has helped many writers and other creative artists to see their art as a spiritual practice and apply themselves to it that way.
Ananda
Works by Ananda, Wolf at the Door's co-founder
North of the Future, Selected Poems 1968-98 (Windhorse, 1999)
Sadly out of print, but still available on Amazon, this selection from the earlier part of Ananda's career shows his amazing versatility and resourcefulness as a poet.
An Average Morning in the Galaxy, New Selected Poems 2001 - 2012 (Lulu, 2013)
This beautiful volume of Ananda's more recent writings demonstrates what being a poet committed to a spiritual path really means.
The Solitude of Small Doors: Poems 2012-2014 (Lulu, 2015)
Shot through with wisdom garnered from decades of Buddhist practice and deepening skill as a writer.
Ananda has also produced many individual collections of poetry. Watch out for these on Lulu.com and Amazon.
The Blue Walls of Heaven
All three volumes of this science fiction trilogy, Error Message (2012), The Egg Man (2014) and The Seventh Angel (2017) are available through Lulu.com and Amazon.
A Few Essential Gems:
We asked one or two of the Wolf at the Door facilitators to recommend any other books they have found particularly helpful.
Here they are:
Padmacandra recommends: Advice to a Young Poet - Rilke. Essential and wise reading. Was very helpful when I started, as was/is The Rattlebag (anthology) - ed Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
Varasahaya recommends Getting Into Poetry by Paul Hyland. She says "Published by Bloodaxe (this) is a good basic introduction to reading poetry. It gives an outline of modern poetry plus lots of information on further reading at the end.
Ananda mentioned On Writing by Stephen King, and says (this) deals with basic approach as well as details and technicalities. Very thorough. And cheap.
Vishvantara and Dharmavadana were together when asked, and both recommended Becoming a Writer - Author: Dorothea Brande, Copyright 1934
Vishvantara added: Brande herself wrote in her introduction This book, I believe, will be unique... I think there is such magic and that it is teachable. This book is all about the writer's magic.
Satyalila said: Just thought of Kim Stafford’s The Muses Among Us, with such chapters as ‘The Writer as Professional Eavesdropper’ and (my favourite) ‘Quilting Your Solitudes’.
Dharmavadana also recommends:
For poets:
Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes - in which he manages to pass on some of his own writing inspiration
Write Poetry and Get it Published by Matthew Sweeney and John Hartley Williams (in the Teach Yourself series) - encouraging and often funny guide to the first steps
Lives of the Poets by Michael Schmidt - a huge and pretty comprehensive 'history of poetry in English', starting from the fourteenth century. The book is somewhat controversial because of the great names Schmidt left out, but it would be hard to find a better overview of what poetry in English has been and might be. A book I found tremendously inspiring when I read it. If you're going to write poetry, I believe, you do at some stage need to understand the tradition.
The Poem's Heartbeat by Alfred Corn - the clearest book on versification, or prosody, that I have read. Even if you only ever want to write free verse, as you get deeper in to writing poetry you will at some stage benefit from learning or at least knowing about the techniques of verse-making of all kinds. Even 'free verse' is not free of craft, of course. There are many prosody handbooks out there but I find that Alfred Corn cuts out a lot of over-complications.
For fiction-writers:
Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight - a handy, comprehensive and encouraging guide to crafting short fiction - and being a writer generally!
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler - 'mythic structure for storytellers and screenwriters'. Taking off from the ideas of Joseph Campbell about the underlying structure of tales world-wide, Vogler's book has been criticised for providing a 'formula'. But if you take his ideas as prompts and inspirations, rather than templates, this is a great book for helping you think about the essential ingredients of plot and story.