Solitude at the Center of All Beauty with Fenton Johnson

by Swanson

“I love Fenton Johnson’s sensibility. It’s a joy and a balm to see the world through his eyes―and to rediscover solitude as our deepest and most powerful source of creativity and spirituality, even for people who are coupled.”

   — Susan Cain, author of Quiet and Quiet Power

Solitude at the Center of All Beauty with Fenton Johnson

Fenton Johnson is the author of At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life.  His book Geography of the Heart:  A Memoir received the American Library Association and Lambda Literary Awards for best LGBT Creative Nonfiction, while his book Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey among Christian and Buddhist Monks received a Lambda Literary and Kentucky Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction. A regular contributor to Harper’s Magazine, Johnson has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and has been featured on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air.  He is emeritus professor at the University of Arizona and serves on the faculty of the creative writing program of Spalding University. Today we talk about At the Center of All Beauty, contemplative principles, the interior landscape as the frontier, embracing humility, the importance of a community of practice and of course solitude and the creative life.

Check out Fenton’s work at fentonjohnson.com

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Episode Show Notes

Books by Fenton Johnson

Resources & People Mentioned

Drink Recommendation

  • Mint Julep or fresh grapefruit juice with sparkling water

Photo Credit: Hannah Ensor