J. Ruth Gendler | Author

J. Ruth Gendler
Author of Notes on the Need for Beauty and The Book of Qualities

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By Popular Demand

Feb.16.2012

By Popular Demand

Reception for By Popular Demand: The Lafayette Printmaking Workshop before the theater’s evening performance of DISTRACTED
The art exhibit remains up until March 24

Featured Works

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PUBLISHED: May.01.2007

Notes on the Need for Beauty

In this wide-ranging and deeply felt book, J. Ruth Gendler invites us to reclaim the often misunderstood quality of beauty. Drawing on observations from art and nature, contemporary culture and personal experience Gendler looks at best not simply as a quality of appearance but as a pathway to integrity, coherence and love. Written with courage, curiosity, a discerning eye and a...

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PUBLISHED: Dec.01.1991

Changing Light: The Eternal Cycle of Night & Day

Changing Light is a radiant collection of soul writings on the cycle of night and day. It gathers together sunset prayers, lullabies, creation stories, sun stories, and poems about evening, sleep, awakening, and day from many cultures across time. Among the writers represented are James Agee, Annie Dillard, Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda, Mary Oliver, Rilke, Rumi, Sappho, Whitman,...

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PUBLISHED: Jan.27.1988

The Book of Qualities

The Book of Qualities presents 74 qualities — including Pleasure, Anger, Terror, Beauty, and Change — as everyday characters who live among us. Both personal and impersonal, the Qualities provide vivid portraits of a variety of human emotions; readers are inspired to reflect on their own qualities and communicate their feelings with new clarity. Now in its 41st printing, The Book...

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J. Ruth's Latest Blogs

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Mar.20.2012 - 10:46 am

Carve this Body into Home

It is always an honor to be asked to write an introduction, especially by someone whose creative work, clarity, and commitment to social justice one respects and admires....

Feb.01.2012 - 9:12 am

Swimming, Soccer, Ice Skating: Poems of the Moving Body

Health experts tell us our bodies are not meant to sit still all day long. (As if we needed someone to tell us that.) Watching children on the playground as...

Nov.18.2011 - 12:01 pm

Love letters to the earth

The chapter "Beauty Secrets, Love Stories" was the heart of my most recent book, Notes on the Need for Beauty. Here is the last section of that chapter. When I was young and...

Oct.07.2011 - 10:35 am

Poet Laureate of the Town of Qualities

As poet laureate, my focus would be to create a time and space that wouldinspire you to living more poetically rather than writing a single grandpoem myself. I dream of expanding...

Comments from J. Ruth

Jan.24.2011 - 1:08 pm

In response to: Writing creative nonfiction the easy way

Tender precise observations of the roundabout ways of writers

Thanks for your tender, precise attention to the process of bringing thought and feeling into language. I once heard...

Dec.17.2010 - 10:57 am

In response to: "I am a firefly"

Invitation to listen

Thank you for you kind and enthusiastic comments. More than anything else in my life, the writing of children gives me...

Jun.30.2010 - 5:38 pm

In response to: Creative Writing With Children

Creativity: Collaborative and Contagious

Thanks Tanya. One of the biggest challenges is documenting the work as it unfolds. Yesterday Jacob was asking Alex...

Feb.15.2010 - 12:43 pm

In response to: Lucille Clifton (1936-2010): One of our Most Wonderful Poets

blessing the boats

Thank you for your heartfelt appreciation of this magnificent poet. I tried to go to a KPFA poetry reading last night...

Oct.25.2009 - 7:01 pm

In response to: Dear President Obama

Bravo Judith

Thanks for all the experience, wisdom and eloquence that went into your letter Judith. As the world grows ever more...

Writing

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Article: As Beauty Does

Article: The Beauty Biz on Wisconsin Public Radio

Published Reviews

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Nov.14.2010

The Book of Qualities

Published by New York Times

Audio & Video

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Image Gallery: The Gendler Files

About J. Ruth

J Ruth Gendler is interested in living in a world where people are more compassionate, creative, and lively. This desire informs her own creative work, including her books, her art and her teaching. She is the author of Notes on the Need for Beauty and The...

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Connections

Causes J. Ruth Gendler Supports

Oxfam

Poets in the Schools

River of Words

Emily's List

Friends of the Earth

Doctors Withour Borders

Bioneers