Shining Darkness
Description
“The stories are shimmering, and the wisdom is real. A gift to the world.” —Valarie Kaur
“Vivid and powerfully told...takes the reader on an arduous and courageous journey, from violence and addiction to spiritual awakening and love.” —Elaine Pagels
Shining Darkness coheres around a central theme: knowing and transforming violence, from the intimately personal through the public and political. In this memoir in essays, Buddhist practitioner, teacher, and professor Linda Hess draws a long arc through trauma and addiction, literature and religion, social action and Buddhist practice, as well as life in northern California, New York City, and India.More details
Person
Linda Hess is Emerita faculty in Stanford University’s Department of Religious Studies, where she taught for 21 years. She is the author of The Bijak of Kabir (North Point/Oxford University Press), A Touch of Grace (Shambhala), and other books. Her major new translation of Kabir poetry is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Bunting Fellowship, a Fulbright scholarship, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Before her academic career, Linda was a freelance writer whose work was published in the Village Voice, Saturday Review, and San Francisco Chronicle Magazine on topics including folk music, humanistic psychology, Indian literature, and spirituality. She has been praised for her powerful, evocative writing and remarkable translations of poetry. Her literary voice is that of a storyteller and poet. Linda has been a Zen practitioner for many years. She and her husband—artist, writer, and translator Kazuaki Tanahashi—live in Berkeley and have two adult children.