Selected Interviews

Various

• Future Fossils (podcast)

Luminarium

• BOMBlog

• Triquarterly

• FictionAddiction

• The Nervous Breakdown Self-Interview

• Focus 580 (audio)

• The Bat Segundo Show (audio)

• Live from the Heartland part 1 (video)

• Live from the Heartland part 2 (video)

The Savage Girl

• Habits of Waste

• The Richmond Review

Selected Features

• Hannah Gersen, "The Trials and Tribulations of Alex Shakar, Post-9/11 Novelist," New York Observer, Aug 16, 2011.

• Irene Lascher, "'Savage' Satire Blurs Lines of Popular Culture." Los Angeles Times, Dec. 14, 2001.

• Martha Bayne, "Irony in the Crosshairs," Chicago Reader, Oct. 4, 2001.

Selected Essays

• "The Year of Wonders" (in The Millions, about publishing The Savage Girl).

• "Scientists Versus Mystics" (in The Wall Street Journal, about the craft of writing fiction).

• "Familiar Regulars at the Local Library" (on All Things Considered, about other people's insanity, and maybe his own).

Further Reading

Some readers have asked me for further reading about subjects mentioned in my books. Here are some books that have inspired me...--AS

For readers of Luminarium

• Neurotheology/Consciousness

  • Why God Won’t Go Away, by Andrew Newberg and Eugene D’Aquili

  • I Am a Strange Loop, by Douglas Hofstader

  • Zen and the Brain, by James H. Austin

  • The Embodied Mind, by Varela, Thompson, and Rosch

• Network/Complexity Theory

  • The Genius Within, by Frank T. Vertosick

  • At Home in the Universe, by Stuart Kauffman

• Misc. Science and Metaphysics

  • Programming the Universe, by Seth Lloyd

  • Biocosm, by James N. Gardner

  • The Mind of God, by Paul Davies

• Atheistic/Skeptical Perspectives

  • Religion Explained, by Pascal Boyer

  • Dying to Live, by Susan Blackmore

  • The Unconscious Quantum, by Victor Stenger

• Hinduism/Advaita/Kundalini

  • The Kalki Purana, trans. B.K. Chaturvedi

  • The Myths and Gods of India, by Alain Daniélou

  • Consciousness Speaks, by Ramesh Balsekar

  • The Integral Yoga, Sri Aurobindo

  • Living with Kundalini, by Gopi Krishna

• Zen/Other Buddhism

  • Zen Training, by Katsuki Sekida

  • Dream Conversations, by Muso Kokushi

  • Mind Body Zen, by Jeffrey Maitland

  • The Myth of Freedom and Crazy Wisdom by Chögyam Trungpa

  • Hakuin on Kensho, by Albert Low

• Contemplative Christianity/Various/Unaffiliated

  • The Path to No Self and The Experience of No Self, by Bernadette Roberts

  • Zen and the Bible, by J.K. Kadowaki

  • Emptiness Dancing and The End of Your World, by Adyashanti

  • Collision With the Infinite, by Suzanne Segal

For readers of The Savage Girl

• The Conquest of Cool, by Thomas Frank

• The Strategy of Desire, by Ernest Dichter

• Madness and Modernism, by Louis A. Sass

For readers of City in Love

• Metamorphoses by Ovid, trans. Alan Mandelbaum