Cascadian Zen Volume Two Front Cover

Cascadian Zen Volume Two

What is the nature of the bioregion known as Cascadia? How is this insight expressed by the people who live, work, practice, and play here? Is there a connection between Zen practice, broadly construed, and the Cascadia bioregion? If so, what is it? Who have been the teachers in the relatively short time that Zen has been known in this bioregion? What role does water play here, more so than in other bioregions and what implications does that have for the people who live here, for their practice?

It is these questions and related questions that we seek to explore in the work Cascadian Zen, edited by Tetsuzen Jason Wirth, Paul E. Nelson, and Adelia MacWilliam, with Theresa Whitehill. Volume Two of The Cascadian Zen Anthology project is a completion of the project begun in Volume one, bringing together nonfiction, poetry, interviews, translations, and artwork that explore expressions of Zen within the Cascadia Bioregion.

The idea for this project grew out of

many iterations of the Cascadia Poetry Festival, hosted annually by the Seattle Poetics Lab (SPLAB, now Cascadia Poetics Lab). The collection is wide-ranging in geographic scope, with work from authors in Prince George to Willits, Kelowna to Port Townsend, Eureka to Seattle, Vancouver and Portland. Authors to be published in the two volume set include:

Sam Hamill, Mary Norbert Körte, Diane di Prima, Michael McClure, Cedar Sigo, Jane Hirshfield, Joanne Kyger, Philip Whalen, Denise Levertov, Tess Galagher, Brenda Hillman, José Kozer, Peter Levitt, Daphne Marlatt, Fred Wah, Meredith Quartermain, Jerry Martien, an essay by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma on Zen in the work of Sam Hamill and others

Release & Launch dates:

Interview Tetsuzen Jason Wirth on Cascadia

February 4, 2022 – Interview about the book with the editors. Jason Wirth speaks about the book’s structure.

Audio Interviews With Contributors to the Cascadian Zen Project

Interview with the designer and contributor to Cascadian Zen Volumes One and Two

Turn Pages: Cascadian Zen: Bioregional Writings on Cascadia Here and Now, with Theresa Whitehill
KZYX&Z Public Radio; programmer: Toni Wheeler
Wednesday, June 4, 2025 (1/2 hour)
This episode features Toni's conversation with Theresa Whitehill, Ukiah poet, graphic designer and contributor to a two-volume series, Cascadian Zen. The books bring together nonfiction, poetry, interviews, translations, and artwork that explore expressions of Zen and the theme of water within the Cascadian bioregion.
link to audio: https://www.kzyx.org/show/turning-pages

Basket Four:

Borders Without Binaries

Deborah Poe

Deborah Woodard

Edward Dorn

Briony Penn

Claudia Castro Luna

Christine Lowther

C.W. Buckley

Jerry Martien

Ursula Vaira

Theresa Whitehill

Koon Woon

Jayne Marek

Fiona Tinwei Lam

Stephen Collis

Gerard Kuperus

Matt Trease

John Olson

Tim Lilburn

Lorin Medley

Bob Rose

Jordan Abel

Fred Wah

John Brandi

Basket Five: Wilson’s Bowl

Phyllis Webb

Stephen Collis

Wilson Duff

Colin Browne

Basket Six: Issei Zen

Paul E Nelson

Barbara Johns

Mike Dillon

Sharon Hashimoto

Basket 7: Storm Clouds

Briony Penn

Carletta Carrington Wilson

Robert Lashley

Rob Lewis

Maiah Merino

Meredith Quartermain

Barry McKinnon

Sharon Thesen

Joanne Arnott

Susan Kay Anderson

Diana Elser

CAConrad

Zoe Landale

Ann Graham Walker

Lorna Dee Cervantes

Contributing Artists

Rick Bartow

Cate Gable

Joan Giannecchini

Ramon Kubicek

Elaine Parks

Dennis Parks

Susan Point

Richard Wagener

Nathan Wirth

Cascadian Zen Volume Two Full Cover