{{Short description|English writer and Zen teacher}} {{Use British English| date=June 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Henry Shukman | image = File:Henry Shukman (Mark Paul Petrick photographer).jpg | caption = | birth_name = Henry Matthew Shukman | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1962|10|26|df=y}} | birth_place = Oxford, United Kingdom | death_date = | death_place = | education = Dragon School<br />MA from Cambridge and an M.Litt. from St Andrews | alma_mater = Cambridge, St Andrews | occupation = | employer = | title = Co-Founder at The Way, Author, Zen Master | spouse = {{marriage|Clare Dunne|1996}} | children = | mother = Ann King-Farlow | father = Harold Shukman | relatives = David Shukman (brother)<br /> | website = {{URL|www.henryshukman.com}} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}

'''Henry Shukman''' (born 1962 in Oxford, Oxfordshire) is an English meditation teacher, Zen master, poet and author. Shukman teaches mindfulness and awakening practices. He is an authorised Zen master in the Sanbo Zen lineage,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sanbo-zen-international.org/teachers/| title=formally authorized to be independent Zen teachers of the Sanbō Zen lineage, By 正師家 (Shōshike)|work=Sanbo Zen International|accessdate=2024-06-27}}</ref> the spiritual director emeritus of Mountain Cloud Zen Center,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mountaincloud.org/our-people/|title=Our People: Mountain Cloud Center|date=12 February 2024 | accessdate=2024-06-27}}</ref> and the co-founder and lead meditation teacher of The Way meditation app.<ref>{{cite web |title=This app helps me learn to chill like a true Zen master |author=Richard Sibley |date=March 2, 2024 |url=https://www.techradar.com/computing/websites-apps/this-app-helps-me-learn-to-chill-like-a-true-zen-master |website=TechRadar |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> Previous to this, Shukman had a career as an author and poet. Over time, Shukman developed a specific approach to spirituality and meditation, leading to the development in 2021 of his Original Love meditation programme, which includes love for self and the world as its foundation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Original Love: A New Approach to Awakening - with Henry Shukman |url=https://www.stillnessspeaks.com/original-love-new-approach-awakening-shukman/ |website=Stillness Speaks |date=21 July 2021 |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref>

== Biography == Henry grew up in Oxford, UK, where his parents were professors. His early love of poetry led to an interest in Chinese Zen poetry, and ultimately to becoming a writer and poet for many years.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Great Awakening: Henry Shukman becomes a child of the universe |author=Nicholas Shakespeare |date=24 July 2021 |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-great-awakening-henry-shukman-becomes-a-child-of-the-universe/ |website=The Spectator |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> In time it also led to his getting into Zen meditation, though his first practice was Transcendental Meditation. He suffered from severe eczema from infancy into his 20s, along with associated psychological problems, and meditation was a key element in his journey of healing, in addition to various styles of therapy. He has written of his own journey in his book ''One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shukman, Henry|title=One blade of grass: finding the old road of the heart : a Zen memoir|publisher=Counterpoint|isbn=978-1-64009-262-4|edition=First paperback|location=Berkeley, California|oclc=1085205562|year=2019}}</ref> He was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford. His father was the historian Harold Shukman and his brother is the BBC News reporter David Shukman. He is of Jewish ancestry; his grandfather, David Shukman, was part of the Jewish community in Baranow, Congress Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire, before emigrating and settling in the United Kingdom.<ref name=polishvillage>{{cite news|last=Shukman|first=David|title=A Polish village's forgotten Jewish dead|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18440223|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=2012-06-16|date=2012-06-16}}</ref> He is married to artist Clare Dunne and together they are parents to two grown sons.

== Writing career == His first book was ''Sons of the Moon''<ref>{{cite book |title=Sons of the Moon |author=Henry Shukman |year=1989 |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson / Scribners |isbn=978-0006376132}}</ref> (1989, Weidenfeld and Nicolson / Scribners<ref>{{cite book |title=Sons of the Moon: A Journey into the Heart of Healing |isbn=0684192047 |last1=Shukman |first1=Henry |date=1989 |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons}}</ref>), which recounted a journey in remote parts of Bolivia in company with photographer Rory Carnegie. Two other travel memoirs followed, ''Travels with my Trombone''<ref>{{cite book |title=Travels with My Trombone |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780517593608 |isbn=978-0-517-59360-8 |last1=Shukman |first1=Henry |date=1993 |publisher=Crown Publishers}}</ref> (1992, HarperCollins / Crown) about a year working as a musician in calypso,<ref>{{cite web |title=Caribbean Bookshelf: Spring 1993 |url=https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-5/caribbean-bookshelf-spring-1993#axzz8aWXBCg6u |website=Caribbean Beat |date=January 1993 |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> soca and salsa bands in the Caribbean and Colombia, and ''Savage Pilgrims''<ref>{{cite book|title=Savage Pilgrims|author=Henry Shukman|year=1996|publisher=HarperCollins / Kodansha|isbn=978-1568361703}}</ref> (1996, HarperCollins / Kodansha) about searching for traces of D.H. Lawrence's life in New Mexico,<ref>{{cite web |title=Savage Pilgrims |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/henry-shukman/savage-pilgrims/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> the only place where Lawrence ever owned a home.

Between 1996 and 2002 he wrote for several US travel magazines and was a contributing editor at ''Condé Nast Traveler''<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Shukman's Contributor Page |url=https://www.cntraveler.com/contributors/henry-shukman |website=Condé Nast Traveler |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> and Islands, while also working on poems and fiction. His first poetry book ''In Dr No's Garden''<ref>{{cite book |title=In Dr No's Garden |author=Henry Shukman |year=2002 |publisher=Penguin Random House |isbn=978-1910702192}}</ref> was published in 2002 and won the Jerwood Aldeburgh prize<ref>{{cite web |title=Aldeburgh First Collection Prize |url=https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/21422-aldeburgh-first-collection-prize |website=Goodreads |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> and was shortlisted for the Forward First Collection Prize.<ref>{{cite web |title=Forward Prizes for Poetry - Alumni |url=https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry/forward-prizes-alumni/ |website=Forward Arts Foundation |access-date=2024-06-27 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924082945/https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry/forward-prizes-alumni/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He then started publishing the fiction he had been working on for several years: ''Darien Dogs''<ref>{{cite book |title=Darien Dogs |author=Henry Shukman |date=2004-05-26 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |isbn=022407282X}}</ref> (2004, Cape / Random House), ''Sandstorm''<ref>{{cite book |title=Sandstorm |author=Henry Shukman |date=2005-07-02 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=0099468492}}</ref> (2005, Cape / Random House), and ''Mortimer of the Maghreb''<ref>{{cite book |title=Mortimer of the Maghreb |author=Henry Shukman |date=2006-06-04 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=1400043255}}</ref> (2006, Knopf). These were followed by the novel ''The Lost City''<ref>{{cite web|title=The Lost City Review |author=Jan Morris |date=2008-03-09 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/books/review/Morris2-t.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> (2007, Little Brown / Knopf). He won the UK Authors' Club Best First Novel Award for ''Sandstorm'', and ''The Lost City'' was a Guardian and Times Book of the Year.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Shukman's Profile |url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/henry-shukman |website=The Guardian |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref>

In 2013 he published ''Archangel''<ref>{{cite web|title=Journeys of Poet Henry Shukman |author=Loren Bienvenu |date=October 11, 2013 |url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/books/subtexts/journeys-poet-henry-shukman/article_25d28bae-a9d6-5478-99f3-ac4bd4ab5cdb.html |website=Santa Fe New Mexican |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> (Cape / Random House), a collection of poems which included a sequence of poems about the journey his grandfather and great uncle had made back to Russia in 1917, shipped there by the British government, and arriving a few weeks before the October Revolution. They spent four years trying to get back to the young families they had left behind in London. The poems were based on research his father Harold Shukman had done into this little-known episode of Anglo-Jewish history, in which around 5,000 Jewish men were sent from Britain back to Russia, and which produced Harold's book ''War or Revolution''<ref>{{cite book |title=War or Revolution: Russian Jews and Conscription in Britain, 1917 |author=Harold Shukman |date=May 1, 2006 |publisher=Vallentine Mitchell |isbn=978-0853037088}}</ref> (2006), his own last book.

In 2019 Shukman published the spiritual memoir ''One Blade of Grass''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shukman, Henry|title=One blade of grass : finding the old road of the heart : a Zen memoir|isbn=978-1-64009-262-4|edition=First paperback|location=Berkeley, California|publisher=counterpoint/Hodder|oclc=1085205562|year=2019}}</ref> (Counterpoint / Hodder) which was a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year.<ref>{{cite web |title=Books of the Year 2020 |author=David Abulafia |date=November 13, 2020 |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-features/arts-books-roundups/books-of-the-year-2020/ |website=TLS |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref>

=== Poetry === In 2000 he won the ''Daily Telegraph'' Arvon Prize,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/shukman-henry-1962 |title=Shukman, Henry (1962–) |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=July 1, 2024}}</ref> and in 2003 his first poetry collection, ''In Dr No's Garden'', published by Cape, won the Jerwood Aldeburgh Poetry Prize.<ref>{{cite web |title=Aldeburgh First Collection Prize |url=https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/21422-aldeburgh-first-collection-prize |website=Goodreads |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> His book was also a Book of the Year in ''The Times'' and ''The Guardian'', and he was selected as one of the Next Generation poets (2004). His poems have appeared in ''The New Yorker'',<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Book Burial |author=Henry Shukman |date=2023-01-23 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/book-burial |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref> ''The New Republic'',<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Sound and Light |author=Henry Shukman |date=2007-06-17 |url=http://socket.newrepublic.com/article/63292/sound-and-light |magazine=The New Republic |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref> ''The Guardian'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Next Generation Poets |author=Henry Shukman |date=2004-06-04 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/05/nextgenerationpoets.poetry17 |website=The Guardian |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref> ''The Times'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''The Independent'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Living Poets Society: A new generation is tipped to scale the literary heights |author=Jonathan Brown |date=2004-06-05 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/living-poets-society-a-new-generation-is-tipped-to-scale-the-literary-heights-755653.html |website=The Independent |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref> ''The Times Literary Supplement'' and ''London Review of Books''. In 2013 he wrote a poetry collection ''Archangel''<ref>{{cite book |title=Archangel |author=Henry Shukman |isbn=9780224097420 |date=2013-03-07 |publisher=Vintage |location=London}}</ref> about Jewish tailors sent to Russia to fight in the First World War.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/archangel-by-henry-shukman-8568646.html|title=Archangel, By Henry Shukman|work=The Independent|date=12 April 2013 |accessdate=2016-04-08}}</ref>

=== Fiction === As a fiction writer he won the Author's Club First Novel Award in 2006<ref>{{cite web |url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/henry-shukman |title=Henry Shukman |website=British Council Literature |access-date=2024-06-01}}</ref> for his short novel ''Sandstorm (Jonathan Cape)'', and, as well as winning an Arts Council England Writer's Award,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.counterpointpress.com/authors/henry-shukman/ |title=Henry Shukman |website=Counterpoint Press |date=16 April 2019 |access-date=2024-06-01}}</ref> he has been a finalist for the O. Henry Award. His second novel was called ''The Lost City''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/books/review/Morris2-t.html?_r=0|title=Travel Warning|newspaper=The New York Times|date=9 March 2008 |accessdate=2016-04-08 |last1=Morris |first1=Jan }}</ref> It was a Guardian Book of the Year,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/henry-shukman |title=Henry Shukman |website=The Guardian |access-date=2024-06-01}}</ref> and in America, where it was published by Knopf, it was a National Geographic Book of the Month.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/best-books-travel-bookclub |title=Best Books: Travel Bookclub |author=Amy Alipio |website=National Geographic |date=13 January 2020 |access-date=2024-06-01}}</ref> He has worked as a travel writer, was Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://futureprimitive.org/2014/05/what-cannot-be-conveyed/ |title=What Cannot Be Conveyed |author=Joanna |date=2014-05-23 |website=Future Primitive |access-date=2024-07-01}}</ref>

== Spiritual & Zen Background == Shukman is a teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sanbo-zen-international.org/teachers/| title=formally authorized to be independent Zen teachers of the Sanbō Zen lineage, By 正師家 (Shōshike)|work=Sanbo Zen International|accessdate=2024-06-27}}</ref> and has trained in various other meditation schools and practices. After a spontaneous spiritual awakening at the age of 19, followed by a difficult few years, he embarked on a long journey of healing and deeper awakening, guided by Roshis John Gaynor,<ref>{{cite web |title=Zen Awakening |author=Dosho Port |date=January 29, 2022 |url=https://tricycle.org/article/zen-awakening/ |website=Tricycle |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> Joan Rieck,<ref>{{cite web |title=Don't Go There |author=Henry Shukman |date=10 September 2012 |url=https://www.lionsroar.com/dont-go-there-november-2012/ |website=Lion's Roar |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> Ruben Habito, and Yamada Roshi,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sanbo-zen.org/histry_e.html |title=History of Sanbo Zen |website=Sanbo Zen |access-date=July 1, 2024}}</ref> international abbot of Sanbo Zen, who ultimately appointed him a teacher in 2010. Since then he has taught Zen at Mountain Cloud Zen Center in New Mexico<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mountaincloud.org/our-people/|title=Our People: Mountain Cloud Center|date=12 February 2024 | accessdate=2024-06-27}}</ref> and internationally. Shukman has taught meditation at Harvard Business School,<ref>{{cite web |title=Profile on Waking Up |url=https://dynamic.wakingup.com/person/PEVZ75 |website=Waking Up |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref> UBS, Wells Fargo,<ref>{{cite web |title=Thrilled to be hosting a virtual mindfulness activity |url=https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tyler-dobson-4217a06_thrilled-to-be-hosting-a-virtual-mindfulness-activity-6971154214978748416-LxbM/?trk=public_profile_like_view |website=LinkedIn |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref> Esalen Institute,<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Shukman |url=https://www.esalen.org/faculty/henry-shukman |website=Esalen Institute |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref> and many other organisations. He has also been authorised to teach Mindfulness by Shinzen Young, studied Jhana practice with Stephen Snyder, and is a certified dreamwork therapist.<ref>{{cite web |title=About |url=https://www.thenaturaldream.com/about/ |website=The Natural Dream |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> In February 2024, Shukman released a meditation app called The Way.<ref>{{cite web |title=This app helps me learn to chill like a true Zen master |author=Richard Sibley |date=March 2, 2024 |url=https://www.techradar.com/computing/websites-apps/this-app-helps-me-learn-to-chill-like-a-true-zen-master |website=TechRadar |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref> In this app, he offers a single pathway of meditation training that guides students through his approach to meditation.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Way App |url=https://www.thewayapp.com/ |website=The Way App |access-date=2024-06-27}}</ref>

He is spiritual director emeritus at the Mountain Cloud Zen Center and is a Zen Teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage, with the teaching name Ryu'un.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/our-group/ |title=Our Group |work=Mountaincloud.org |accessdate=2016-04-08 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626102308/https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/our-group/ |archivedate=2015-06-26}}</ref>

''One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir'' was published in October 2019.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shukman, Henry|title=One blade of grass : finding the old road of the heart : a Zen memoir|isbn=978-1-64009-262-4|publisher=Counterpoint|edition=First paperback|location=Berkeley, California|oclc=1085205562|year=2019}}</ref>

== Other professional background== Shukman has an MA (Cantab) from Cambridge and an M.Litt. from St Andrews. He has taught writing and literature at the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico, and Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Shukman |url=https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/henry-shukman |website=Penguin Australia |access-date=2024-06-28}}</ref>

==See also== *David Shukman

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=28250 Publisher's website]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukman, Henry}} Category:1962 births Category:21st-century English novelists Category:Living people Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:English people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:English Jews Category:Jewish British poets Category:English male poets Category:Sports poets Category:English male novelists Category:21st-century English male writers