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Reviews, Excerpts and Interviews

The Long Night of Life
A Dharmic origin story
The Buddhist Years: Collected Writings by Jack Kerouac shares a wealth of previously unpublished writings reflecting Jack Kerouac’s Buddhist thinking… “
READ MORE at TRICYCLE, The Buddhist Review

American Writer Jack Kerouac’s Buddhist Beliefs Brought to Forefront in New Publication
“A forthcoming book Jack Kerouac: The Buddhist Years, will focus on the Buddhist spirituality and reflections of the American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac as part of an exploration of how Buddhism shaped some of his most compelling ideas and his most eloquent writing…”
READ MORE at BuddhistDoor

Kerouac: The Buddhist Years
A Review by Marc Olmsted
Charles Shuttleworth has done a remarkable job of excavating gem after gem of Jack Kerouac’s unpublished dharma writings, mostly from the collection at the Berg Library in NYC. What at first seemed a collection of scraps for the Kerouac completist quickly turned into a candy store of Jack’s thoughts that couldn’t be published by themselves until now. Take a look at some of these fragments…”
READ MORE at Beatdom

Jessica Little reviews a series of new books for the May 2025 issue of Lion’s Roar.
…Kerouac is at his finest in this collection of previously unpublished material. There’s a heady mix of spiritual musings combined with colorful, often semi-autobiographical storytelling. His exploration of Buddhism serves his writing well, softening and deepening his reflections and observations about life. The collection also includes extracts…”
READ MORE at Lions Roar, Books in Brief: May 2025

An Interview with Charles on BBC Radio’s Sunday program
“A new book of previously unpublished work by Jack Kerouac chronicles ‘The Buddhist Years’…”
BBC Radio’s Sunday program, January 26, 2025
references to The Buddhist Years are at 0:31-0:46 and 15:23-21:00

The Observer

Fragments of a Dharma Bum
Before becoming the voice of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac was just another desperate seeker in an existential crisis. Then Buddhism struck him like a lightning bolt…”
READ MORE at TRICYCLE, The Buddhist Review