Kurt Hoelting has taught mindfulness for 30 years, including 25 years leading mindfulness-based wilderness retreats in Alaska through Inside Passages, and fifteen years as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher. He no longer offers his Alaska trips, but is available on request to lead classes, mindfulness retreats and one-on-one mindfulness coaching.
Kurt is the author of The Circumference of Home, which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in 2011. His new book Apprentice To the Wild will be published by Empty Bowl Press in January of 2025.
A schedule of readings for Apprentice To the Wild will be forthcoming soon, but for those in shooting range of Whidbey Island, my Book Launch event will be on Feb. 1 at the Unitarian Church in Freeland, from 3:00 - 5:00 pm. I will also be presenting readings at Fisher Poets in Astoria, OR, February. 21 - 22. and with Tele Aadsen in Port Townsend on March 15 at 4:00 at the Friends Church.
Advance Praise for Apprentice to the Wild
“No matter how domesticated our lives may feel…we remain children of the wild.” With these words, Kurt Hoelting invites us into the wilderness around and within us. Drawing on personal experience and a range of wisdom traditions, he points us toward the wild joy into which we were born—and toward the good medicine wilderness provides for the risks, losses and griefs that come with life. I’m deeply grateful for this beautifully written handbook for a life lived fully and well.”
Parker J. Palmer, author of On the Brink of Everything, A Hidden Wholeness, and Let Your Life Speak
“So rarely do we get to sail the winds of life with such a thoughtful, insightful, and reflective thinker. This gorgeous book is a gift to those of us who worry and wonder about the earth and the unfolding of our personal path. With a poet’s elegance, a meditator’s sensitivity, and philosopher’s insight, Hoelting helps us celebrate human experience in its fragile yet shining quality.”
Paul Wapner, author of Living Through the End of Nature
“Exploring the wilds of Alaska and the vastness of the human heart, Kurt Hoelting embraces the unknown with each paddle stroke, footstep and breath. Apprentice to the Wild shows us that every joyous or painful moment is a gift, and the best companions on life’s journey are curiosity, courage and compassion.”
Amy Gulick, Author/Photographer of The Salmon Way and Salmon in the Trees
“This vivid and often lyrical memoir demonstrates that we can stand up to life’s storm surges if we maintain equanimity and contemplative awe, cultivate a capacity for joy and amazement, for humor and laughter, and forge deep human connections….I highly recommend this book. It has challenged, comforted, and, I hope, changed me. May it do the same for you.”
Diana Chapman Walsh, president emerita, Wellesley College, co-founder of the Council on the Uncertain Human Future, and author of The Claims of Life: A Memoir