Writing the Landscape of Your Mind

by Natalie Goldberg

Writing the Landscape of Your Natalie Goldberg's Minnesota Workshop Our second Goldberg tape includes groundbreaking advice on structure, not addressed in Bones or Wild Mind, and she reads the introduction to her 1993 book Long Quiet Highway. The workshop includes new writing exercises and support for writers. "You create the universe," she says. 2 70 Minute Tapes

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

Audio Cassette

Published January 1, 1994

About the author

Natalie Goldberg lived in Brooklyn until she was six, when her family moved out to Farmingdale, Long Island, where her father owned the bar the Aero Tavern. From a young age, Goldberg was mad for books and reading, and especially loved Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the Sad Cafe , which she read in ninth grade. She thinks that single book led her eventually to put pen to paper when she was twenty-four years old. She received a BA in English literature from George Washington University and an MA in humanities from St. John's University.

Goldberg has painted for as long as she has written, and her paintings can be seen in Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World and Top of My Lungs: Poems and Paintings. They can also be viewed at the Ernesto Mayans Gallery on Canyon Road in Sante Fe.

A dedicated teacher, Goldberg has taught writing and literature for the last thirty-five years. She also leads national workshops and retreats, and her schedule can be accessed via her website: nataliegoldberg.com

In 2006, she completed with the filmmaker Mary Feidt a one-hour documentary, Tangled Up in Bob, about Bob Dylan's childhood on the Iron Range in Northern Minnesota. The film can be obtained on Amazon or the website tangledupinbob.com.

Goldberg has been a serious Zen practitioner since 1974 and studied with Katagiri Roshi from 1978 to 1984.

Reviews

[Shahd Thani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Natalie goldberg has always been my first writing teacher. Listening to her accent, her tenderness, her humanity, her passion for writing is so humbling

[Taylor Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing seminars and workshops are often just attempts to exploit a population of people that think it would be just so nifty to write, but don’t actually have plans or the real ambition and spiritual fortitude to make writing a life, let alone a career. But they get advice from their heroes, get some things written down in a notebook and feel useful and artistically accomplished for a weekend.

But with Natalie, you can feel the sincerity. She even mentioned that after many successful seminars her agent pleaded with her to continue, but she wanted to take a two year break to explore other endeavors and stretch her mind. The truth is, most people attending these conferences won’t become huge names. But they are given a chance, a glimpse, and a push in the right direction. Ana I believe any art we create in our life is important. Not just for ourselves, and not just for those who view it and are entertained, but for the world, for the kinetic winds of creativity that flow and fade all over the world.

I would listen and/or read if writing is what you want to do, but are struggling to do.

[C Heaslip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook is actually a two day workshop. Great prompts: I remember, I don't remember, I see, keep moving.

[Dawn]

wow, although i knew it, natalie goldberg has such an accent! it was so different, listening to her talk instead of reading it in my own voice. i've yet to finish (2005?) (na stars)