MEET KURT

Kurt Hoelting 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 was released by Empty Bowl Press in January of 2025.

Following 30 years of teaching mindfulness, including 25 years leading mindfulness-based wilderness kayaking retreats in Alaska through his outfitter/guide company Inside Passages, Kurt is currently based on Whidbey Island in the heart of the Salish Sea. He is available to offer readings and talks based on his new book, Apprentice to the Wild. You can contact Kurt here.

ABOUT APPRENTICE TO THE WILD

In Apprentice to the Wild, long-time wilderness guide and meditation teacher Kurt Hoelting charts the evolution of his path from his early encounters with wildness and risk on commercial fishing vessels in Alaska to his embrace of Zen practice as a gateway to the wild within. 

Inspired by the words and friendship of Gary Snyder, Hoelting founded Inside Passages, guiding mindfulness-based kayaking expeditions in Alaska focused on how the “practice of the wild” informs both our inner and outer landscapes. 

In later essays, he reveals the role of grief as teacher in his own life and discovers what it means to become an elder in turbulent times. With honesty and wisdom, Hoelting offers timely advice: “In a time of profound ecological challenges, reclaiming a felt connection with the wild forces that gave birth to our species has become an essential part of our emerging survival equipment.

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

  • “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

  • “So rarely do we get to sail the winds of life with such a thoughtful, insightful, and reflective thinker and feeler. 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 Is Wildness Over?

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 February 1 at the Unitarian Church in Freeland, from 3:00 - 5:00 pm. I will also be presenting some readings at Fisher Poets in Astoria, OR, February. 21 - 22.