What was I doing standing up in front of everyone anyway? ... They had signed up for this lovely New Age weekend down in Florida -- what was going on with this Natalie Goldberg? I knew only a handful had read any of my books. How was I going to leap over this mess smoothly and talk about writing practice, where I was on solid ground? I mentioned the horses from the seminar title -- ahh, relief on their faces -- they had come to the correct lecture hall after all.
Then everything dropped away. I had nothing to say.
•••
So begins the journey by one of America's favorite writing teachers. Natalie Goldberg has inspired millions to write to develop an intimate relationship with their minds and a greater understanding of the world in which they live. Now, through this honest exploration of her own life, Goldberg puts her teachings to work.
In this wry, nimble memoir, Natalie Goldberg candidly depicts her father, Ben, an old-fashioned man's man who knew no boundaries -- a trait that was at once his greatest strength and most profound weakness. In capturing the essence of this larger-than-life Jewish bartender, she reveals the intricacies of a precarious father-daughter relationship. The tenuous bond with her father leads her in many directions and ultimately to Dainin Katagiri Roshi, a dynamic, celebrated Zen master. In light of an eye-opening discovery that shakes her ideal of this beloved teacher, Goldberg revisits her many years of loyal practice under Roshi's guidance.
Elegantly weaving these tales together, this story is finally a search for truth when there are no easy answers. Filled with Goldberg's trademark gifts for both humor and teaching, The Great Failure touches our hearts and minds as we come to recognize the ways in which we fail to confront our illusions.

The Great Failure: A Bartender, A Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth

Biographies & Memoirs

Goldberg, Natalie

Arts & Literature

HarperOne

One of America's favorite teachers, Natalie Goldberg has inspired millions to write as a way to develop an intimate relationship with their minds and a greater understanding of the world in which they live. Now, through this honest and wry exploration of her own life, Goldberg puts her teachings to work.

The Great Failure: My Unexpected Path to Truth (Insight: The Spirit Behind The Words)

The author of Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind recounts her journey of awakening with the help of a Zen master, describing her suburban childhood, her fifteen years as a student of Zen, and her moments of illumination. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.

Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Bantam]

Moving to an artists' commune where she assumes a new identity, Nell Schwartz, a Brooklyn Jewish girl, falls in love with a horn player named Gauguin and learns to assert her creativity from Anna, a writer from the Nebraska farmlands

Banana Rose

Literature & Fiction

United States

Thunder And Lightning: Cracking Open The Writer's Craft

In this long-awaited sequel to her bestselling books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg takes us to the next step in the writing process: turning our flashes of inspiration—the thunder and lightning of creation—into a polished piece of work. Thunder and Lightning You've filled your notebooks, done your writing practice, discovered your original voice. Now what? How do you turn this raw material into finished stories, essays, poems, novels, memoirs? That is the subject of this unique and inspiring guide, which taps the same rich sources of intuition and individuality that have made Natalie Goldberg one of the most sought-after writing teachers of our time. Drawing on her own experience as a writer and a student of Zen, Natalie shows you how to develop a structure or plot that preserves all the odd, kinky turns of your one-of-a-kind mind and captures the completely authentic way you see the world. She tells you how to "get out of the way" and let your characters take on their own life. She shows you how to create a field big enough to allow your wild mind to wander—and then gently direct its tremendous energy into whatever you want to write. Here, too, is invaluable advice on how to overcome writer's block, how to deal with the fear of criticism and rejection, how to get the most from writing workshops and working with an editor, and how to learn from reading accomplished authors. With a generous helping of humor and compassion, she recounts her own mistakes on the way to publication—and how you can avoid the most common pitfalls of the beginning writer. And through it all there is a deep celebration of writing itself—not just as the means to an end, but as a path to living a deeper, more fully alive life.

Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft

Self-Help

Creativity

Natalie Goldberg, author of the bestselling Writing Down The Bones, teaches a method of writing that can take you beyond craft to the true source of creative power: The mind that is “raw, full of energy, alive and hungry.” Here is compassionate, practical, and often humorous advice about how to find time to write, how to discover your personal style, how to make sentences come alive, and how to overcome procrastination and writer's block—including more than thirty provocative “Try this” exercises to get your pen moving. And here also is a larger vision of the writer’s task: balancing daily responsibilities with a commitment to writing; knowing when to take risks as a writer and a human being; coming to terms with success and failure and loss; and learning self-acceptance—both in life and art. Wild Mind will change your way of writing. It may also change your life.

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life

Join the bestselling author of Wild Mind and Writing Down the Bones as she explores a new realm of creativity--the world of color--and offers us an intimate view of how everyday life is transformed into art. In twelve high-spirited chapters, Natalie introduces us to her family, her artist friends, her New Mexico home, her painting trips to Europe--always focusing on the questions faced by any creative person, whatever their medium. Why, for example, does an artist choose some subjects and not others? ("I was crazy about the wrong-color sky and the heart-sinking beckoning of headlights on old cars," she acknowledges.) How does a painter draw nourishment from another painter's work? ("I didn't want fancy art theories. I wanted a direct connection with the painting before me.") When is it time to move into a new form? ("I had to go to an empty white canvas and find out what was within me.") More than 60 four-color reproductions of Natalie's distinctive and joyous paintings appear throughout. The result is a feast for the eyes and a celebration of the creative spirit in action.

Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

The author of Writing Down the Bones recounts her journey awakening from the profound sleep of a suburban childhood, describing her fifteen years as a student of Zen Buddhism, her writing, and resistance to change.

Random House Publishing Group

In this long-awaited sequel to her bestselling books Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind, Natalie Goldberg, one of the most sought-after writing teachers of our time, takes us to the next step in the writing process. You’ve filled your notebooks, done your writing practice, discovered your original voice. Now what? How do you turn this raw material into finished stories, essays, poems, novels, memoirs? Drawing on her own experience as a writer and a student of Zen, Natalie shows you how to create a field big enough to allow your “wild mind” to wander — and then gently direct its tremendous energy into whatever you want to write. Here, too, is invaluable advice on how to overcome writer’s block, how to deal with the fear of criticism and rejection, how to get the most from working with an editor, and how to learn from reading accomplished authors. With humor and compassion, Goldberg recounts her own mistakes on the way to publication — and how you can avoid the most common pitfalls of the beginning writer. Through it all there is a deep celebration of writing itself — not just as the means to an end, but as a path to living a deeper, more fully alive life.

The bestselling novel from the beloved author of Writing Down the Bones, Wild Mind, and Long Quiet Highway is now available in paperback for the first time. With a half-million copies in print of her three remarkable books of nonfiction, Natalie Goldberg has inspired a generation of writers with her insight, humor, and empathy. Subtly hilarious and achingly raw, her first novel Banana Rose has rewarded her devoted fans while attracting a whole new readership to her work. Banana Rose is the story of Nell Schwartz, a Brooklyn-born Jewish girl who moves to the Taos of communes and sweet cedar smoke, transforms herself into Banana Rose (because she's "bananas"), falls in love with a horn player named Gauguin, and believes they can stop time if they just love hard enough. It's also about Nell and Anna, a strange-eyed writer as lonely as the Nebraska farm where she grew up, whose kisses taste like raspberries and who teaches Nell what it means to be an artist. But most of all, Banana Rose is about Nell's struggle with her own wild heart, with the demands of canvas and paint, with her family and faith, and with her irrepressible longing for home.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Goldberg, Natalie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Goldberg, Natalie

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Goldberg, Natalie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Great Failure: A Bartender, A Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth

The Great Failure: My Unexpected Path to Truth (Insight: The Spirit Behind The Words)

Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America

Banana Rose

Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life

Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World

Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America

Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft

Banana Rose