HOUSDEN, Roger

PERSONAL: Born in Bath, England; immigrated to the United States, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Author, journalist, translator.

WRITINGS:

Fire in the Heart: Everyday Life As Spiritual Practice, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

Retreat: Time Apart for Silence and Solitude, Harper-SanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

Travels through Sacred India, HarperCollins (New Delhi, India), 1996.

The Tibetan Oracle: Ancient Wisdom for EverydayGuidance, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Sacred Journeys in a Modern World, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

Sacred America: The Emerging Spirit of the People, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

Ten Poems to Change Your Life, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Chasing Rumi: A Fable about Finding the Heart'sTrue Desire, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2002.

Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Ten Poems to Set You Free, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Ten Poems to Last You a Lifetime, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: A poet and a longtime student of spirituality, Roger Housden has led a number of pilgrimage tours while conducting his own inner quest for meaning. In Travels through Sacred India, he describes his journey throughout a country that has long attracted untold numbers of spiritual pilgrims. "He seems to have been to every ashram and many, many sacred places, and always with that sense of reverence which enables him to convey the aura of the place as it feels to those who worship there," wrote Asian Affairs contributors Maurice and Taya Zinkin. In addition to bringing the great gurus alive, he describes the constant faith of the ordinary people, like the villager who looks to Mother Ganga to solve his domestic problems and the old man with a goddess for every affliction. Nor does he neglect the non-Hindu populace, with chapters on Sikhs and Jainists, as well as Christians, Sufis, and Buddhists. "There is no better book on what the religions of India mean to its people," concluded the Zinkins.

After a guide to the Tibetan oracles, Housden followed up with Sacred Journeys in a Modern World, a sort of tour of his own spiritual journey, focusing on the sacred places that have had a dramatic effect on his own internal quest. "As much a travelog as it is a spiritual journey," in the words of Library Journal reviewer Richard Watts, the book discusses a wide range of holy sites, including the Ganges River, a monastery in the Sinai, and St. John the Divine in New York City. At the same time, according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, he "celebrates the spiritual right in the heart of the marketplace," showing that the sacred is all around us.

In 1998, Housden immigrated to the United States. In Sacred America: The Emerging Spirit of the People, he seeks out his new country's grassroots spiritual communities, including an Indian Sun Dance center in Wyoming, the Springwater Center for Meditative Inquiry in New York, and an artists' commune in Santa Fe. He also talks to individual mystics, New Age entrepreneurs, and ordinary citizens who feel that God is somehow working through them. "Writing with a graceful simplicity, Housden pulls together the commonalities of the world's spiritual paths," according to Booklist reviewer Bonnie Johnston. For a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "The distinctive qualities of different confessions blend together, although the reader may not be convinced that Housden has observed a single national 'spirit.'" For Library Journal reviewer Leroy Hommerding, "This lucid, lovingly written account will be useful to scholars . . . and to readers who wish to join others in searching for the deeper side of life."

In addition to producing these spiritual guidebooks, Housden has emerged as an anthologizer of contemporary poetry for those seeking inner wisdom. Ten Poems to Change Your Life brings together selections from poets such as Mary Oliver and Pablo Neruda that explore the use of dreams, the courage of an authentic life, and other aspects of inner journeys. Ten Poems to Open Your Heart includes poems on the mysteries of love, with contributions again from Oliver and Neruda, as well as Sharon Olds, Czeslaw Milosz, and others from around the world. Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation and Ten Poems to Set You Free continue this tradition of bringing together poetic selections to aid readers in the search for enlightenment.

Housden became a novelist with Chasing Rumi: A Fable about Finding the Heart's Desire. Set in 1950s Italy, it is an allegorical tale of a young Greek immigrant and icon maker who becomes fascinated by the medieval Sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi. Failing to find true love in Florence, young Georgiou goes on a pilgrimage to Rumi's tomb in Turkey, a journey that takes him to monasteries, temples, and the ancient shrine of Delphi. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the tale "an amusing but shallow diversion whose Gurdjieff-like dialogue . . . can be either annoying or hilarious depending on your frame of mind." Booklist reviewer Margaret Flanagan was more impressed: "Lyrically written, this surrealistic affirmation of life and love will enthrall and inspire readers seeking spiritual nourishment."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Affairs, June, 1997, Maurice and Taya Zinkin, "A Voyage round India," pp. 229-231.

Booklist, November 15, 1999, Bonnie Johnston, review of Sacred America: The Emerging Spirit of the People, p. 582; October 15, 2002, Margaret Flanagan, review of Chasing Rumi: A Fable about Finding the Heart's Desire, p. 385; January 1, 2003, Donna Chavez, review of Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, p. 834; March 15, 2003, Ray Olson, review of Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation, p. 1270; December 1, 2003, Donna Chavez, review of Ten Poems to Set You Free, p. 635.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2002, review of Chasing Rumi, p. 1337.

Library Journal, April 1, 1998, Richard Watts, review of Sacred Journeys in a Modern World, p. 94, October 15, 1999, Leroy Hommerding, review of Sacred America, p. 74.

Publishers Weekly, March 9, 1998, review of SacredJourneys in a Modern World, p. 63; October 25, 1999, review of Sacred America, p. 69.*