Rabbit Room Press is pleased to add a new book to its collection: now available in the Rabbit Room Bookstore is Letters from the Mountain by Ben Palpant. Read on to learn more about Ben, his new book, and our upcoming online course where we will read and explore it together.
In this memoir of the craft, Ben Palpant unpacks a lifetime of wisdom gained through the long, hard work of learning to write and to live well. Delivered as a series of letters from father to daughter, he patiently and gracefully paints a vision of what it means to enter into one’s creative work as an act of generative obedience—an act that blesses the writer, the work itself, and the world that receives it. Palpant reveals the creative process not only as an act of love and attentive artisanship, but as the work of shaping a life and a heart that points toward the coming of a Kingdom and the renewal of Creation itself.
Upcoming Online Course
Think of this reading group as a chance to read over the author’s shoulder as he pens letters to his daughter on matters of faith and creativity in community. It’s your opportunity to enter the intimate friendship that they share, to ask questions that spring up along the way as they discuss living generatively, and to be shepherded both by the author and by each other as we learn to use the gifts God has given us for the life of the world. You’ll also be given a prompt each week to make something beautiful (in word, art, music, or whatever form you’d like) and share with the group. Letters from the Mountain is not just for artists and writers. It’s a book that addresses the issues every Christian faces: learning to see what God sees, handling criticism, facing anxiety, the gift of the mundane, dealing with self-doubt, and much more.
Praise for Letters from the Mountain
“Sometimes you can read just one sentence and know that the writer has a gift. Ben Palpant is one of those people. This book on writing, framed as a series of letters to his daughter, is a window into his big, generous, and pastoral soul. There’s a lot of wisdom here, and I’m grateful for the way Palpant is using his gift to give it away.”
—Andrew Peterson, singer/songwriter, author of the Wingfeather Saga
“This book is a beautiful work of grace, bound by love and fueled by art, a blessing in every sense to the reader. I enjoyed every word.”
—Jeff Goins, author of The Art of Work
“In the beautiful epistolary tradition evocative of Rilke, Ben Palpant examines what it means to be an attentive writer of faith, and to pass the creative commending of God’s mighty works to a future generation.”
—Carolyn Weber, author of Surprised by Oxford
About the Author
BEN PALPANT is a memoirist, poet, novelist, and non-fiction writer. He is the author of several books, including A Small Cup of Light, Sojourner Songs, and The Stranger. He writes under the inspiration of five star-lit children and one dog named Chesterton. He and his wife live in the Pacific Northwest.