What is the nature of the bioregion known as Cascadia? How is this insight expressed by the people who live, work, practice, and play here? Is there a connection between Zen practice, broadly construed, and the Cascadia bioregion? If so, what is it? Who have been the teachers in the relatively short time that Zen has been known in this bioregion? What role does water play here, more so than in other bioregions and what implications does that have for the people who live here, for their practice?
It is these questions, and other questions brought on by these, that we seek to explore in the work Cascadian Zen, edited by Tetsuzen Jason Wirth, Paul E Nelson, and Adelia MacWilliam, with Theresa Whitehill, and published in October 2023 with a launch at the Cascadia Poetry Festival in Seattle, Oct 6-8, 2023. The volume features poetry, essays, artwork, and interviews, bringing together nonfiction, poetry, and translations that explore expressions of Zen within the Cascadia bioregion.
The idea for this project grew out of many iterations of the Cascadia Poetry Festival hosted annually by the Seattle Poetics Lab (SPLAB, now Cascadia Poetics Lab). The collection is wide-ranging in geographic scope.
Listen to an interview about the book with the editors. (Read the interview transcript.)
Jason Wirth speaks here on February 4, 2022 about the book’s structure:
CASCADIAN ZEN
Edited by PAUL E. NELSON, JASON M. WIRTH, ADELIA MACWILLIAM, with THERESA WHITEHILL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE: Users’ Guide
INTRODUCTION: Andrew Schelling
BASKET ONE: THE BUDDHA WAY
Daphne Marlatt
Diane di Prima
Joanne Kyger
Cedar Sigo
Philip Whalen
Gary Snyder
Albert Saijo
Mushim Patricia Ikeda
Terran Campbell
Cate Gable
Bob Redmond
Shirley Graham
Andrew Schelling
Jane Hirshfield
Peter Levitt
Robert Michael Pyle
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs
José Kozer
Tetsuzen Jason M. Wirth
BASKET TWO: EMPTY BOWL
Sam Hamill
Denise Levertov
Tim McNulty
Mike O’Connor
Michael Daley
Red Pine (Bill Porter)
Ann Spiers
Robert Sund
Glenn “Chip” Hughes
Samuel Green
Holly J. Hughes
Tess Gallagher
Alice Derry
Alicia Hokanson
Bill Yake
Tom Jay
Judith Roche
Josh Hayes
Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
BASKET THREE: ORIGINAL MIND
Robert Bringhurst
Ray Grigg
Wedlidi Speck
Rena Priest
Jan Zwicky
Adelia MacWilliam
Robin Blaser
Brenda Hillman
George Stanley (interviewed by Barry McKinnon) + poems
Kate Braid
Gary Copeland Lilley
Jami Macarty
Roo Borson
John Brehm
Michael McClure
Paul E. Nelson
Mary Norbert Körte
Volume I ends here and Volume II begins. To be published in Fall 2024.
BASKET FOUR: BORDERS WITHOUT BINARIES
Deborah Poe
Deborah Woodard
Edward Dorn
Briony Penn
Claudia Castro Luna
Christine Lowther
C.W. Buckley
Jerry Martien
Ursula Vaira
Theresa Whitehill
Koon Woon
Jayne Marek
Fiona Tinwei Lam
Stephen Collis
Gerard Kuperus
Matt Trease
John Olson
Tim Lilburn
Jordan Abel
Fred Wah
BASKET FIVE: WILSON’S BOWL
Phyllis Webb
Stephen Collis
Wilson Duff
Colin Browne
BASKET SIX: ISSEI ZEN
Paul E Nelson
Barbara Johns
Mike Dillon
BASKET SEVEN: STORM CLOUDS
Carletta Carrington Wilson
Robert Lashley
Rob Lewis
Maiah Merino
Meredith Quartermain
Barry McKinnon
Sharon Thesen
Joanne Arnott
Susan Kay Anderson
Diana Elser
CAConrad
Zoe Landale
Ann Graham Walker
POSTFACE: David McCloskey
list of visual artists:
Rick Bartow
Cate Gable
Joan Giannecchini
Ramon Kubicek
Elaine Parks
Dennis Parks
Susan Point
Richard Wagener
Nathan Wirth
