For more than thirty years, Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering on writers with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice—it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind.

This thirtieth-anniversary edition includes new forewords by Julia Cameron and Bill Addison. It also includes a new preface in which Goldberg reflects on the enduring quality of the teachings here. She writes, "What have I learned about writing over these thirty years? I’ve written fourteen books, and it’s the practice here in Bones that is the foundation, sustaining and building my writing voice, that keeps me honest, teaches me how to endure the hard times and how to drop below discursive thinking, to taste the real meat of our minds and the life around us."

Art and Fear is a book about making art. It discusses the challenges and rewards encountered in the creative process. Ordinary art, not the kind made by Mozart-like geniuses, but the kind we all can make, is the focus here.

Geniuses are rare, but good art is created all the time. This book argues that equating art with genius makes it seem unreachable and unknowable. Instead, art making is an intimately human activity that can be explored and enjoyed by everyone.