Cascadian Zen Front Softcover

Cascadian Zen

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? CLICK IMAGE TO ORDER NOW.

It is these questions and related questions that we seek to explore in the work Cascadian Zen, edited by Tetsuzen Jason Wirth, Paul E. Nelson, and Adelia MacWilliam, with Theresa Whitehill. Volume One of The Cascadian Zen Anthology project brings together nonfiction, poetry, interviews, translations, and artwork that explore expressions of Zen within the Cascadian 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, with work from authors in Prince George to Willits, Kelowna to Port Townsend, Eureka to Seattle, Vancouver and Portland. Authors to be published in the two volume set include:

Sam Hamill, Mary Norbert Körte, Diane di Prima, Michael McClure, Cedar Sigo, Jane Hirshfield, Joanne Kyger, Philip Whalen, Denise Levertov, Tess Galagher, Brenda Hillman, José Kozer, Peter Levitt, Daphne Marlatt, Fred Wah, Meredith Quartermain, Jerry Martien, an essay by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma on Zen in the work of Sam Hamill and others

Release & Launch dates:

Release date: September 1, 2023
Launch date: October 6- 8, 2023, Cascadia Poetry Festival 7

Cascadian Zen Softcover

Video Interviews

Interview Tetsuzen Jason Wirth on Cascadia

February 4, 2022 – Interview about the book with the editors. Jason Wirth speaks about the book’s structure.

Interview Sharon Thesen

April 22, 2021 – Sharon Thesen Interview Part 1 The Fire

Cascadian Zen Interview with Wedlidi Speck

December 18, 2020

Audio Interviews With Contributors

Michael McClure

by Michael McClure reading at Simon Fraser University February 11, 2011

Brenda Hillman

by Paul E Nelson Interview with Brenda Hillman - In a Few Minutes Before Later

Stephen Collis

by Paul Nelson Interview with Stephen Collis Part 2 - Once in Blockadia

Sam Hamill

by Sam Hamill - The Translation and Publishing of Copper Canyon Press Part 1

Michael Daley

by Paul E Nelson Interview with Michael Daley - (Romance With the Unexpected) - Part 1

Cascadian Zen Anthology

by Paul E Nelson Interview with Jason Wirth and Adelia MacWilliam

Daphne Marlatt

by Paul E Nelson Interview with Daphne Marlatt (Liquidities) - Part 1

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
Robert Sund
Glenn “Chip” Hughes
Ann Spiers
Samuel Green
Holly J. Hughes
Tess Gallagher
Michael Daley
Red Pine (Bill Porter)
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