Ethics & Aesthetics at the Turn of the Fiftieth Milennium:

Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End

Mountains & Rivers Symposium

"Mountains and Rivers Without End integrates so many domains of knowledge--from Zen Buddhism to hydrology to geology to diverse cultural studies--that readers benefit greatly by exchanging insights, ideas and questions with experts from a wide range of academic fields, as well as with the poet himself. This will be a day to celebrate Gary Snyder's exceptional accomplishments as artist and teacher," said Mark Gonnerman, Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, the symposium convener.

In October 1997 Gonnerman organized the Mountains & Rivers Workshop at the Stanford Humanities Center. This provides a forum for intensive study of Snyder's work with artists and scholars from a wide variety of fields. This year the workshop has been addressed by fifteen speakers, including Robert Hass, poet; Carl Bielefeldt, Zen Buddhist scholar; Michael McClure, poet; Zoketsu Norman Fischer, abbot, San Francisco Zen Center; and David Freyberg, professor of hydrology at Stanford.

Snyder and Sakaki will present a poetry reading at the Stanford Bookstore Friday, May 15 at 4:00 p.m. Additionally, an exhibition of photography by David Robertson, "Mattering Without End: For Gary Snyder and the Community of San Juan Ridge," is on exhibit in the Foyer Gallery at Stanford's Nathan Cummings Art Building through May 17. A reception for the artist will be held Friday, May 15, from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

Conference Schedule

May 16, 1998

9:00 a.m.

Welcome and Introductions by Mark Gonnerman

9:15-11:15

Poem-as-Art Panel: Anthony Hunt, Tim Dean, Jim Dodge

11:30-12:00

Presentation by Philip Williams

12:00-1:30

Break for lunch on campus

1:30-2:30

Mountains & Rivers & Japan: Katsunori Yamazato and Nanao Sakaki

2:45-4:30

Poem-as-Instruction Panel: David Abram, Stephanie Kaza, Theodore Roszak

4:30-5:00

Concluding Remarks: Gary Snyder

Sponsors of the symposium include the Stanford University Center for Buddhist Studies, Center for East Asian Studies, Continuing Studies Program, Department of Art, Department of Asian Languages, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of English, Department of Religious Studies, Humanities Special Programs, Institute for International Studies, Office of the Dean of Humanities and Sciences, Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the Stanford Humanities Center.

M & R Symposium - Bios

Anthony Hunt: Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Hunt recently completed a book length manuscript on Mountains and Rivers Without End. Hunt has studied the poem for twenty years as sections have appeared in various literary journals.

Contact: ahunt@coqui.net

Stephanie Kaza: Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont where she teaches environmental ethics, religion and ecology, ecofeminism and nature writing. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from UC Santa Cruz, an M.A. in education from Stanford, a B.A. in biology from Oberlin, and an M.Div. from Starr King School for the Ministry where she studied feminist theory, theology and ethics. For seven years she served as chair of the board of directors for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship; she continues to write a quarterly ecology column for BPF's "Turning Wheel." She is author of The Attentive Heart: Conversations with Trees (Random House, 1996) and numerous articles on Buddhism and ecology. Her book in progress is Green Buddha Walking, an environmental interpretation of Buddhist philosophy and practice.

Contact: skaza@zoo.uvm.edu

Theodore Roszak: Among many books, Roszak wrote The Making of a Counterculture (Anchor Books, 1969; rpt. University of California Press, 1995), a landmark study of twentieth-century societal change. A Guggenheim fellow and twice nominated for the National Book Award, Roszak is a professor of history and general studies at California State University at Hayward. In The Voice of the Earth (Simon & Schuster, 1992), Roszak argues against the false dichotomy dividing the inner and outer world. A recipient of the Goldman Environmental Foundation grant, Roszak directs The Ecopsychology Institute at CSU, Hayward. Roszak has been at work on a book to be released by Houghton-Mifflin next fall: America the Wise: Longevity and the True Wealth of Nations.. Contact: troszak@haywire.cuhayward.edu

Nanao Sakaki: Nanao Sakaki (b. 1923) is famous for his life as a wandering poet-storyteller in the tradition of Saigyo, Basho, Ryokan and Ikkyu. Gary Snyder writes that Nanao "is one of the first truly cosmopolitan poets to emerge from Japan, but the sources of his thought and inspiration are older than east or west. His spirit, craft, knowledge of history, make him-whether he likes it or not-an exemplar of the lineage that goes back to the liveliest of Taoists, Chuang-tzu. His poems were not written by hand or head, but with the feet." Nanao has two volumes of poems in English: Break the Mirror (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987 [reprinted in 1997 by Blackberry Books]) and Let's Eat Stars (Nobleboro, Maine: Blackberry Books, 1997). Nanao's presence is made possible by a grant from Stanford's Institute for International Studies Japan Fund. Contact: Studio Reaf, 636-3 Kekurano, Minami-Izu cho, Kamo-gun, Shizuoka-ken, 4115-03211 Japan

Philip Williams: Holding a Ph.D. in hydraulics from the University of London, Williams is the honorary president of the International Rivers Network (IRN), a non-profit environmental group that he founded in 1985, which is now headquartered in Berkeley. As IRN president, Williams has been prominent in many international campaigns against large scale water projects. Over the last 20 years, he has served as the technical advisor to environmental groups in the United States working on critical water management issues such as the New Melones Dam, the campaign to protect Mono Lake, the Auburn Dam, and the remediation of diverse environmental effects of water development in California. He is also a practicing hydraulics engineer, and president of a hydrology consulting firm in San Francisco.

Contact: pbw@pwa-ltd.com

Katsunori Yamazato: Professor of American Literature at the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa. Yamazato holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Davis, where he wrote his dissertation (1987) on Gary Snyder's years in Japan: "Seeking a Fulcrum: Gary Snyder and Japan (1956-1975)." Yamazato has written on and translated Snyder's work for Japanese and American readers. He is a native Okinawan. Contact: yamazato@ll.u-ryukyu.ac.jp

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CONTACTS: Marilyn Nix (650) 856-2271 (marnix@aol.com)

Mark Gonnerman (650) 497-0923 (markg@leland.stanford.edu)

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