Peter Levitt was born in New York City in 1946. His nine poetry books include Within Within, One Hundred Butterflies and Bright Root, Dark Root. In addition, he has published Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom, and, with Kazuaki Tanahashi, he cotranslated and retold A Flock of Fools: Ancient Buddhist Tales of Wisdom and Laughter. In addition, he has published fiction and literary translations from Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. Legendary poet, Robert Creeley, wrote that Peter Levitt’s poetry “sounds the honor of our common dance”. In 1989 Peter received the prestigious Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry.
A longtime practitioner of Zen, he edited Thich Nhat Hanh’s classic, The Heart of Understanding, Jakusho Kwong’s No Beginning, No End: The Intimate Heart of Zen, and recently he served as Associate Editor of The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye – Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi (Shambhala Publications, 2010). In the spring of 2013, Shambhala Publications will bring out The Essential Dogen: Writings of the Great Zen Master, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt.
He is the founder and guiding teacher of the Salt Spring Zen Circle on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia where he resides with his family.
Contact Peter by email: levgram@gmail.com