Freeing the Writer Within: Author Natalie Goldberg

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: www.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.

Natalie Goldberg's Thunder and Lightning

Natalie Goldberg on NaNoWriMo, Writing Style
By Natalie Goldberg
View a short video about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and learn about style in this Wild Mind excerpt Living the Writer's Life.

'Thunder and Lightning' Interview with Author Natalie Goldberg
By Molly Anderson-Childers
What spawned the idea for Thunder and Lightning, your sequel to Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind? What did you hope to achieve with this book?

Alleviating That Thin Constant Writer’s Anxiety
By Natalie Goldberg
I hear people say they’re going to write. I ask, when? They give me vague statements. Indefinite plans get dubious results.

Warning! (To Writers)
By Natalie Goldberg
Yes, writing practice is good. It can help people, but I’m not so sure about taking it further.

How to Flourish in Your Writing (Plus Three Writing Prompts)
By Natalie Goldberg
An excellent way to feel fully free and really flourish in your writing is to develop a sweetheart inside you that encourages you.

Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones

'Writing Down the Bones' 20th Edition Interview with Author Natalie Goldberg
By Molly Anderson-Childers
Natalie Goldberg on her work as a writer and painter, what she thinks about writer's block, and the biggest obstacle facing her in her creative path. Also, what's new in the Twentieth Anniversary expanded edition of Writing Down the Bones, inner and outer writing landscapes, her work on Tangled Up in Bob, and her next book project.

Engendering Compassion
By Natalie Goldberg
To begin writing from our pain eventually engenders compassion for our small and groping lives. (Writing Down the Bones excerpt.)

Beginner’s Mind, Pen and Paper
By Natalie Goldberg
In a sense, that beginner’s mind is what we must come back to every time we sit down and write. (Writing Down the Bones excerpt.)