Mark Nepo

Mark Nepo is an American poet and spiritual writer who has spent more than half a century teaching poetry, creative expression and the inner life. He is best known for The Book of Awakening, a year of short daily reflections that became a New York Times bestseller and has sold over a million copies. Since then he has published more than two dozen books of prose and verse, from Seven Thousand Ways to Listen to The Fifth Season and The Language of the Soul, alongside many audio recordings. Oprah Winfrey has featured him on Super Soul Sunday and took him on her 2014 Life You Want tour.

His teaching blends poems, stories and insights from many faith traditions into quiet questions about how to live wholeheartedly, listen closely and stay near what is sacred in ordinary days. He guides small yearlong journeys, short online webinar series, and weekend or weeklong retreats at places such as Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, the Modern Elder Academy in Baja and the Sophia Institute in Charleston. A favourite method is to trace familiar words back to their roots and let their older meanings open up conversation.