We are grateful to be able to host Bill Porter, who works under the pen name Red Pine, at the University of Wyoming on Friday, April 5. He will be giving two talks: one entitled "The Heart Sutra: Buddhism in a Nutshell" at 11:00am in Classroom Building, room 222 and the other entitled "China's Hermit Tradition: The Importance of Solitude" at 4:10 in the Berry Center Auditorium, room 138. The lecture at 4:10pm will be broadcast via WyoCast at this link.

Red Pine is one of the most famous translators of classical Chinese Buddhist and Daoist poetry. He has published over twenty books of translations in English and written nine books in Chinese, and is known for his direct yet playful renderings of classical Chinese. Following in the spirit of his muses, Chinese mountain hermit-poets, Red Pine has lived an eccentric life. After growing up in northern Idaho, he enrolled in Columbia for a PhD in Classical Chinese, spent years at a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan, worked in Hong Kong as a radio presenter, and traveled widely throughout China. He was awarded the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Thornton Wilder Prize for his translations in 2018.

Both talks will be aimed at a general audience, and so can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in Buddhism, translation, or the joys of solitude among the mountains.