Douglas Penick Biography

I graduated from Princeton University, was a research associate at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, and a chef at Gordon Matta Clark’s Food. I’ve studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism for more than 30 years, and have written and taught on Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian religion, history and culture. I wrote the National Film Board of Canada’s prize winning two part series on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Leonard Cohen, narrator) and the libretti for two operas: King Gesar (Sony CD w/ Ma, Serkin, Ax et. al.) and Ashoka’s Dream (Santa Fe Opera) with composer, Peter Lieberson. I’ve also written pieces to music by Philip Glass, for choreographer Katsura Kan, and on commission from the New York Philharmonic, the Boulder Symphony, Denver Eclectic Concerts and others. I’m the author of three books deriving from the epic cycle on the life of King Gesar of Ling: Crossings on a Bridge of Light, Warrior Song of King Gesar and The Brilliance of Naked Mind. Short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in Bombay Gin, The Shambhala Sun, Parabola, Porte Des Singes, Cahiers de L'Herne, Publishers Weekly and elsewhere. My novel A Journey of the North Star, a semi-finalist in the 211 ABNA, was brought out by Publerati this June.