The Magpie Spoke to Me

A profound exploration of the power of storytelling to shape our shared reality, reveal our fundamental interbeing, and transform our future for the better.

Stories show us who we really are. Really good stories show us what it means to be alive. This is a book about storytelling. A book that explores how the stories we tell shape the realities we live in. What if our most far-fetched stories, the ones we dismiss, sideline, and even pathologize, could be doorways to a better future?

In The Magpie Spoke to Me, Zen priest and acclaimed novelist Bonnie Nadzam confronts the dominant narrative of our time—that of separation between self and other, between humanity and nature—and shows us that different stories are possible. People around the world are meeting this era of upheaval, grief, and environmental destruction with tales of possibility, wonder, and hope. We hear from Indigenous healers, Buddhist teachers, artists, poets, musicians, students, professors, scientists, doctors, workers, parents, and children—a chorus of voices celebrating the interconnection of all life on Earth.

This is a book about relationships—with people, plants, animals, minerals, and all other manner of beings. A book that invites us to embrace creative practice and imagination. A book that explores what it means to be fully human. Together, we might begin to write a new chapter of our human story.BONNIE NADZAM is an American writer and Zen Buddhist priest and chaplain. Her poetry, essays and fiction have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Orion Magazine, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, and many other journals and magazines. Her first novel, Lamb, was the recipient of The Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, translated into several languages, and made into an award-winning independent film. Her second novel, Lions, was a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award in Fiction. She is also co-author of Love in the Anthropocene with environmental ethicist Dale Jamieson.  She holds a BA from Carleton College, an MFA from Arizona State University, and an MA and PhD from the University of Southern California. She is currently a research fellow with the Harvard Animal Law and Policy Program and recently completed Upaya Zen Institute’s Buddhist chaplaincy training program. She is represented by Kate Johnson (Wolf Literary Services).