Peter Levitt’s books of poetry, prose, and translation include One Hundred Butterflies, Within Within, Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom, and his collaborative translations with Kazuaki Tanahashi, The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan, A Flock of Fools: Ancient Buddhist Tales of Wisdom and Laughter, and The Essential Dogen: Writings of the Great Zen Master. In 1989, he received the Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry. He is the founding and guiding teacher of the Salt Spring Zen Circle in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, with his wife, poet Shirley Graham.

Rebecca Nie is a Chinese American Zen master, scholar, and award-winning algorithm and new media artist. Born in China and came of age in Canada and the United States, Z.M. Nie now serves as the Buddhist Chaplain-Affiliate at Stanford University. Chinese literature and cultural heritage are some of Z.M. Nie’s life-long passions: she started writing Chinese poetry at the age of nine, studied the Song of Chu at ten, and by fifteen years old, she memorized key passages from Tao Te Ching and Zhuang Zi. Z.M. Nie’s prose and poetry were frequently published in Chinese literary magazines, and she was an assistant editor of Shenzhen Yucai Education Group’s Literary Extension Textbook Series (2000). In Canada and the United States, Z.M. Nie continued her education in Classical Chinese literature and Eastern spirituality while studying English. She has published multiple times in professional English language journals and magazines and graduated with honors from the University of Toronto and Stanford University. Nie is also a Zen Master of the Korean Jogye Order and founding abbot of Mahavajra Seon Sanctuary, dedicated to unleashing humanity’s full potential by offering systematic training in Eastern wisdom- spiritual traditions.