Books by Ben Howard

Published originally as biweekly columns, the fifty essays in this collection bring the age-old practice of Zen to bear upon contemporary life. Whether their immediate subject be shoveling snow or baking bread, the "virtues of solitude" or the emotional dimension of social media, these lucid, graceful essays explore the manifold ways by which we might take the "backward step," shifting our orientation from ego-centered thinking to selfless awareness. "Wise and true," writes Roshi Joan Halifax of The Backward Step, "this wonderful book transmits the essence of practice realization."

Part memoir, part almanac, and part primer on meditation, Entering Zen is addressed to anyone who might wish to take up the practice of meditation, or deepen an existing practice, or explore the nuances and complexities of the Zen tradition. The seventy-five essays in this collection first appeared as columns in the Alfred Sun, the community newspaper of Alfred, New York. Ben Howard is Emeritus Professor of English at Alfred University and a longtime practitioner of Zen and Vipassana meditation. His previous books include Leaf, Sunlight, Asphalt and the verse novella Midcentury.

This artist-approved songbook to Ben Howard's chart-topping album, I Forget Where We Were, is the first time Ben's music is available in sheet music form and includes all songs that appear on the album arranged for piano, voice and guitar.