“Memoir writers, buy this book, put it on your personal altar, or carry it with you as you traverse the deep ruts of your old road.” —Tom Spanbauer, author of The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon.

Old Friend from Far Away teaches writers how to tap into their unique memories to tell their story. In the late 1980s, Natalie Goldberg’s classic, Writing Down the Bones (a very important book for me as a young writer), broke new ground in its approach to writing as a practice. Now, Old Friend from Far Away—her first book since Writing Down the Bones to focus solely on writing—reaffirms Goldberg’s status as a foremost teacher of writing, and completely transforms the practice of writing memoir. To write memoir, we must first know how to remember. Through timed, associative, and meditative exercises, Old Friend from Far Away guides you to the attentive state of thought in which you discover and open forgotten doors of memory. At once a beautifully written celebration of the memoir form, an innovative course full of practical teachings, and a deeply affecting meditation on consciousness, love, life, and death, Old Friend from Far Away welcomes aspiring writers of all levels and encourages them to find their unique voice to tell their stories. Like Writing Down the Bones, it will become an old friend to which readers (and writers) return again and again.

Natalie Goldberg is a poet, teacher, and the author of eleven books, including Writing Down the Bones, Long Quiet Highway, Living Color, and The Great Failure. She has taught writing seminars for over forty years to people from around the world, and lives in northern New Mexico.

Softcover, 312 pages. 2007.