Eliezer Sobel

Hi -- I am 52, living in Batesville, Virginia, where a bunch of migrating Sufis and assorted spiritual countercultural types landed some 20 years ago. In the late 70s I lived in NYC and was Editor-in-Chief of The New Sun magazine, and spent years as a human guinea pig for every spiritual teacher and workshop I could find. My utter failure to be enlightened by all this is chronicled in a humorous spiritual memoir I am currently sending around, The 99th Monkey: On Personally Preventing the Paradigm Shift. My long-awaited first novel, (long awaited by me, that is) won the 2003 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel, and was released by the University of Tennessee Press in the Fall of 2004. It is called Minyan: Ten Jewish Men in a World That Is Heartbroken.

An excerpted portion of the novel entitled Mordecai’s Book won the best short fiction award from New Millenium Writings and can be read on their website.

Lesley Maclean (designer of the Wild Heart website and journal)

I worked on the journal and website from New Zealand, which is of course no obstacle because as long as you have a computer and a phone line you're in business.
I used to live at the Lama Foundation in New Mexico where several of the "Sitting in the Wild Heart" retreats have been held. I have tried in many and various ways over the years to marry my wayward and untamable creative impulses with my yearning for simplicity and contemplation. I like to attempt this union in the form of the japanese tea ceremony. and also by throwing paint, ink, voice, computers and now a young son around. If you feel like saying hello please drop me a line.