Writing into the Void with Ruth Ozeki

About this episode

Ruth Ozeki discusses her short story collection and the influence of Buddhist teachings on her writing.

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen priest. She recently published her first short story collection, The Typing Lady and Other Fictions. With characteristic wit and grace, Ozeki astutely explores themes of identity, longing, loss, and the clarity that comes with old age. In one story, a couple watches their ambitions roam the woods as ghosts; in another, an aging writer enlists her granddaughter to fake her death as a way of getting out of an upcoming book tour. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ozeki to discuss what drew her to the form of the short story, how the Buddhist teaching of not-self informs her writing, how writing short stories can be an act of surrender, and the lessons she learned from caring for her mother in the final years of her life. Plus, Ozeki reads a short excerpt from one of the stories in the collection.

People in this episode

Host: James Shaheen

Guest: Ruth Ozeki

Topics covered

• writing
• Buddhism
• identity
• loss
• aging
• short stories

Keywords

• Ruth Ozeki
• Buddhism
• short stories
• identity
• loss
• aging
• writing

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Typing Lady and Other Fictions

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