Sean Murphy

Sean lives in Taos, New Mexico, with his wife Tania, a freelance journalist and fiction writer. His third novel for Bantam/Dell, The Time of New Weather, published in Trade Paperback in 2005, will be rereleased in Mass Market Paperback in April 2008. Sean is a member of The Authors Guild and his literary agent is Peter Rubie.

Sean is an MFA graduate in writing from The Naropa Institute, the Buddhist inspired university founded by Poet Allen Ginsberg and Tibetan Lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He's had sixteen years of formal Zen training, first under the direction of Taizan Maezumi Roshi of the Zen Center of Los Angeles and currently with John Daido Loori Roshi of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York.

He has contributed to Writer's Market; The Sun; Yoga Journal; Tricycle: The Buddhist Review; Mandala, and Mountain Record: The Zen Practitioner’s Journal, plus the anthologies You Are Not Here and Other Works of Buddhist Fiction, by Wisdom Publications, and NOW WRITE! Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers, from Tarcher.

Sean teaches creative writing and literature at the University of New Mexico in Taos, and leads writing workshops around the country. (See Workshops page for more information). He also co-taught for four years with Natalie Goldberg (author of Writing Down the Bones) in her series of writing and meditation seminars.

He has produced, directed and/or scripted more than 25 educational and documentary film and video programs for groups including the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Committee to Save Mono Lake, and Zen Mountain Monastery.

Sean's plays, In The Dark, Making Carthage Yellow, Turkey, and The Glass Harmonica, have received full or workshop productions from the Ensemble Theatre Company, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (Marin), New One-Act Theatre Ensemble (Los Angeles); Garuda Theatre Company (Boulder); and the Actors and Playwrights Theatre (Santa Barbara).

When his fingers need a break from typing, Sean plays guitar and listens to jazz. He was probably a frog in a former life judging by his fascination for them in this one. He also loves snakes and lizards and is an ace at catching snakes and moving them out of the road so they can slither somewhere safer. It's an invaluable skill in New Mexico, and one he learned during his childhood in Miami.

MY FAVORITE ZEN BOOKS

In One Bird, One Stone, I give a full list of suggested reading, including individuals’ personal accounts of their own Zen training, books by contemporary teachers, and works on koan study, Zen and creativity and Zen travel. Here are some of the books that have been particularly important to me in my own practice.

The Eight Gates of Zen – John Daido Loori
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind – Shunryu Suzuki
The Three Pillars of Zen – Philip Kapleau
Nine-Headed Dragon River – Peter Matthiessen
The Snow Leopard – Peter Matthiessen
Everyday Zen – Charlotte Joko Beck
Taking the Path of Zen – Robert Aitken
Long Quiet Highway – Natalie Goldberg
The Bones of the Master - George Crane

"In 1999 I acquired an agent after winning an award for the manuscript of my novel, The Hope Valley Hubcap King. When I told him of my idea for a collection of American Zen stories, he asked me to put together a book proposal and some sample anecdotes.
A short time later I found myself in the odd position of having sold a non-fiction book I hadn't written yet, and having not yet sold the novel I had already finished! This series of events marked my sudden, headfirst introduction to the publishing industry."