A Book Reading and Talk by Alan Lessik – Author of “Make the Dark Night Shine” – A Zen Novel
The London Zen Group is pleased to welcome Alan Lessik to the Caledonian Road Dojo!
This event will be at approximately 8:00pm – After Zazen, and if you would like to come for ONLY the book reading and talk by Alan, please don’t buzz the buzzer until 7:45. This event will replace our usual Monday evening dharma study. Zazen, as usual, will begin at 6:30pm with introductions to practice at 5:50pm.
Alan Lessik will be reading from his new Zen novel Make the Dark Night Shine, which was inspired by his Aunt Nina Uchida´s family story. Make the Dark Night Shine is a love letter from a father to the daughter he never met. Set between the two World Wars and taking place in Constantinople, Paris, Japan, New York and London, the narrator is Kenzo Uchida, a gay diplomat turned Zen priest. The book also reflects the words and images of Dōgen´s Genjō Kōan and the novel is Lessik´s interpretation of the kōan in the troubling times we face today.
Alan Lessik is a member of the Berlin Queer Writers Circle, Zen practitioner, amateur figure skater and LGBT activist. His debut novel The Troubleseeker was short-listed for the Publishing Triangle’s 2017 Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. With an interest in how novels preserve queer culture, he has been published on this and other topics by Lambda Literary, the Bay Area Reporter, and Advocate. He received Jukai from in 2013 from Kikū Hōetsu Christina Lenherr at the San Francisco Zen Center and was an active member of the Center´s Queer Dharma team. Later, he became a teacher at the SF LGBTQ Sangha. He is currently a member of the Black Mountain Zen Centre in Belfast.
blog: alanlessik.com.