cover image Writing—The Sacred Art: Beyond the Page to Spiritual Practice

Writing—The Sacred Art: Beyond the Page to Spiritual Practice

Rami Shapiro and Aaron Shapiro. SkyLight Paths, $16.99 trade paper (200p) ISBN 978-1-59473-372-7

A father-and-son team of writing teachers—Rami Shapiro is a prolific author (The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness) as well as rabbi—takes a circuitous approach to the process of writing. The authors first construct a spiritual framework of multiple levels of consciousness, then proceed through those levels—body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit—with explanation and writing prompts. It’s a little abstruse and mystical, but the writing prompts are wonderfully fun and liberate the imagination. The book reads at times like “you had to be there”—it’s based on a writing retreat/workshop the authors have led for seven years, so they are writing from what has worked. Still, some readers will think that the exercise of writing letters to your enemies is more therapy than craft development. Others will have a creative ride, gain some spiritual insight, and learn a little about Martin Buber and the cris de coeur found in the Hebrew Bible. (May)