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Natalie Goldberg

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Natalie Goldberg


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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 Ernest
...more

Natalie Goldberg isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

What I’m Passionate About

I'm hungry for land, to be on a mesa in New Mexico or by the beach out on Long Island. I like to walk hard, feel my legs and my breath and my heart pounding, then stop completely and sit on a rock and sit and sit, being there, taking in with my lungs the absolute openness of space and smell, shade and light. I can't live without a plot of land to garden in in summer, tall cosmos and zinnias—oh, my Read more of this blog post »
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Published on November 17, 2008 00:00
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The Writing Life: Ideas and...
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Quotes by Natalie Goldberg  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”
Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

“We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded. This is how writers must think, this is how we must sit down with pen in hand. We were here; we are human beings; this is how we lived. Let it be known, the earth passed before us. Our details are important. Otherwise, if they are not, we can drop a bomb and it doesn't matter. . . Recording the details of our lives is a stance against bombs with their mass ability to kill, against too much speed and efficiency. A writer must say yes to life, to all of life: the water glasses, the Kemp's half-and-half, the ketchup on the counter. It is not a writer's task to say, "It is dumb to live in a small town or to eat in a café when you can eat macrobiotic at home." Our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life as they exist – the real truth of who we are: several pounds overweight, the gray, cold street outside, the Christmas tinsel in the showcase, the Jewish writer in the orange booth across from her blond friend who has black children. We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love the details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing.”
Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

“This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.”
Natalie Goldberg

Polls

September is one of our non-fiction months. The subject matter is open so I'm providing a mixed bag for the vote. This poll will be open until Wednesday, July 31.

Thunder and Lightning Thunder and Lightning Cracking Open the Writer's Craft by Natalie Goldberg Natalie Goldberg
 
  3 votes, 37.5%

The Children of Henry VIII The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir Alison Weir
 
  2 votes, 25.0%

Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder Blood Work A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker Holly Tucker
 
  2 votes, 25.0%

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown Dee Brown
 
  1 vote, 12.5%

The Professor and the Madman The Professor and the Madman A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester Simon Winchester
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Gods, Graves, and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology Gods, Graves and Scholars The Story of Archaeology by C.W. Ceram C.W. Ceram
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
The Life of a Boo...: Genna Sarnak's 2011 TBR Challenge 25 49 Jan 19, 2011 12:46AM  
The Seasonal Read...: 5.10 - About the Author 70 137 Jan 25, 2011 08:40AM  
Book Nook Cafe: What I read ~~ March 2013 62 95 Apr 11, 2013 07:01AM  
The Next Best Boo...: This topic has been closed to new comments. The Title Game 20238 14459 May 30, 2013 12:53PM  
The Next Best Boo...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Last Letter Game (Writers/Authors) 1687 1296 May 30, 2013 12:55PM  


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