Beech River Books

Dan Wakefield is a novelist, journalist, and screenwriter who grew up in Indianapolis and graduated from Columbia College in New York City. His book, Returning: A Spiritual Journey, was described by Bill Moyers as “one of the most important memoirs of the spirit I’ve ever read.” His books The Story of Your Life: Writing a Spiritual Autobiography and Creating from the Spirit:?A Path to Creative Power in Art and Life grew out of workshops he leads at churches, synagogues, adult education centers, health spas and retreat centers throughout the country. His memoir How Do We Know When It’s God? continues the story of his spiritual quest.

His novels Going All the Way and Starting Over were produced as feature films, and his memoir New York in the Fifties is the basis of a documentary of the same name, which was aired on the Sundance Channel and distributed as a DVD. Wakefield created and served as Story Consultant for the NBC prime time series “James at 15.”

He is the recipient of the Bernard DeVoto Fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a National Endowment for the Arts award, a Rockefeller Foundation grant in Writing, and a Nieman Fellowship in Journalism at Harvard.

Wakefield served as Writer in Residence at Florida International University from 1994-2010, where he received the Faculty Award in Mentorship. He is currently on the faculty of the Low Residency MFA in Writing program at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and continues leading his writing workshops around the country.

To learn more or to contact the author, please visit his website: www.danwakefield.com.

Creating from the Spirit  (Beech River Books, 2010) teaches anyone who wants to become more creative how to access our natural perceptions and hidden resources, a process brilliantly expressed in the lives and words of twenty “creators from the spirit.” Wakefield interviews artists and writers, scientists and athletes, CEOs and chefs — all of whom have learned to embrace each moment as a creative act. In this passionate, clearly reasoned book, award-winning journalist and novelist Dan Wakefield explodes the many myths often associated with the mysterious creative process. Drawing on examples from religion, philosophy, and literature and exercises such as journaling and right-brain drawing, Creating from the Spirit teaches us that the key to creation is clarity of body, mind, and spirit. Wakefield also challenges the “dangerous nirvanas” of drugs and alcohol as false agents of inspiration.

How Do We Know When It's God?  (Beech River Books, 2010). Decades of atheism and hard-living were interrupted by a profound religious reawakening—experiences recorded in Returning: A Spiritual Journey, which Bill Moyers called "one of the most important memoirs of the spirit I have ever read."  The unexpected challenge of maintaining his faith "over the long haul...after the first flush of rediscovery" is the focus of this inspiring memoir. Wakefield's hard-won realization that spirituality is not static, and that each day holds the promise of renewal, will resonate for any reader who seeks to keep faith.

The Story of Your Life  (Beech River Books, 2012). Writing a Spiritual Autobiography, A Step-By-Step Approach to Exploring Your Past and Understanding Your Present. Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of my life? Taking time to ask these questions, which often linger unexamined at the back of our minds, can be the first step to new growth, healing and maturity. In The Story of Your Life, Dan Wakefield shows us how to write about and share our most meaningful life experiences, and in so doing to see our lives in a new light. Wakefield shares experiences from his own remarkable life as well as touching stories told by people who have participated in spiritual autobiography workshops he has led. Through exercises such as drawing a favorite childhood room, describing a mentor or friend, or sketching a road map of your life, you will begin to understand the factors that help define your own spiritual journey.