Audiobooks by Natalie Goldberg

Writing on Empty: A Guide to Finding Your Voice

Bestselling author and teacher Natalie Goldberg shares her inspiring personal journey out of a devastating period of writer’s block and back into a life of growth, creativity, and healing. Natalie Goldberg has been writing for the past fifty years. But at the beginning of the pandemic, she suddenly wasn’t able to write anymore. Her imaginative wellspring had dried up, and she was forced to ask herself: what do I do when what has always worked for me doesn’t work anymore? In this beautifully written, inspiring personal account, Natalie shares her harrowing journey out of creative paralysis and back onto the page. When all of her tried and true methods – meditation, sitting still, writing practice – stopped working, she had to take drastic action. She got into her car and left New Mexico in search of a new inventive source. In her journey through the western states, she visited famous literary sites, searching for the spark that would reignite her ability to write. And, next to Hemingway’s grave, she found it. “Get going,” he seemed to say to her, and she did. Now, Natalie shares her story of traveling through literary and personal memory to clarify her way forward, struggling to make sense of her difficult relationships with parents and teachers, and digging into her long-held grief. Ultimately, she discovers how to write through the emptiness in order to fill up the world with compassion, healing, and renewed liveliness. For anyone struggling to reconnect with their own creative source, Writing on Empty is a gentle and instructive guidebook back to remembering what truly matters.

Natalie Goldberg (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku

One of the world's foremost writing teachers invites readers on a joyful journey into the reading and origins of haiku A haiku is three simple lines. But it is also, as Allen Ginsberg put it, three lines that "make the mind leap." A good one, he said, lets the mind experience "a small sensation of space which is nothing less than God." As many spiritual practices seek to do, the haiku's spare yet acute noticing of the immediate and often ordinary grounds the reader in the pure awareness of now. Natalie Goldberg is a delightfully companionable tour guide into this world. She highlights the history of the form, dating back to the seventeenth century; shows why masters such as Basho and Issa are so revered; discovers Chiyo-ni, an important woman haiku master; and provides insight into writing and reading haiku. A fellow seeker who travels to Japan to explore the birthplace of haiku, Goldberg revels in everything she encounters, including food and family, painting and fashion, frogs and ponds. She also experiences and allows readers to share in the spontaneous and profound moments of enlightenment and awakening that haiku promises.

Natalie Goldberg (Author), Natalie Goldberg (Narrator)

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The Art of Writing Memoir: Finding the Past in the Present

This weekend workshop is a primer on writing the modern memoir, which, unlike your grandmother's memoir, can be written at any age. Also, a memoir can be about just part of your life. "The more you are present, the more the past will come up and be alive," says Natalie. "Only right now can give you your past." Topics include how to crack open structure, listen effectively, use specific detail, find a new angle, fail successfully and make connections with your mind.

Natalie Goldberg (Author), Natalie Goldberg (Narrator)

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Finding Success in Failure

Natalie Goldberg recently had her world turned upside down when she made startling discoveries about her beloved Zen Buddhist teacher. In this moving dialogue, with her characteristic honesty, she tells how being forced to look at his failings, as well as the failings of her father, helped her see the light in each of us.

Natalie Goldberg (Author), Michael Toms (Narrator)

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The Zen Of Writing

This dialogue is a very personal exploration into the life of one of our most popular authors on the subject of writing. It overflows with stories about her family, her schoolteachers, her grandmother, and her Zen master. It includes the place she lives now and places she has visited, pilgrimages she has made, and spiritual lessons she has gleaned - even what it’s like to be a bestselling author. Throughout the dialogue runs the thread of how a writer becomes a writer - not just the basic rules of “keep your hand moving; be specific; go for the jugular,” etc., which she also shares here - but the story of how the life process of a writer enriches and shines through their writings. “Underneath it all,” she says, “everybody has a longing to express themselves and to connect with themselves.” And here we can see just how that process occurs. (hosted by Michael Toms)

Natalie Goldberg (Author), Michael Toms (Narrator)

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