MOMS DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ BOOKS PODCAST WITH ZIBBY OWENS

Award-winning writer, professor, and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki joins Zibby to discuss her latest novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness. The two talk about capturing the imagination of children's books for adults, how social norms in every culture determine where the line is drawn between creativity and mental illness, and why Ruth sees books as living things.

September 20, 2021
Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books Podcast
Ruth Ozeki, THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS: A Novel

Lit Hub: "The Writer You Are Is Enough."

“All of my favorite early childhood books were about small writers (girls, boys, spiders) who use writing to resist hegemonic power, question authority, interrogate ‘reality,’ and disrupt the status quo. Needless to say, all the small writers get in trouble for this, but in the end, they prevail.”
— Ruth Ozeki, Lit Hub Questionnaire

Japan Times: Ruth Ozeki's inquisitive side is still on point

“On the surface, Ozeki’s novel is about a grief-stricken family struggling to find meaning in the aftermath of a tragedy. But dig deeper and the story is an intricately layered commentary on modern society and the significance it puts on material objects, a study on subjectivity and the nature of reality. All the while, it’s a book about the unknown, all-knowing realms of the imagination…When spending time in Ozeki’s world, the empirically provable and quantifiable become less important, and the truths of our inner lives grow louder, if only we can honor those voices.”
— Kris Kosaka, The Japan Times