Helen Tworkov -- A Reading and Interview

What happens when a young woman raised in New York’s art world sets out in the 1960s looking for a radically different way to understand life? In Lotus Girl: My Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America, newly published in paperback, Helen Tworkov tells a remarkable story that is at once personal memoir and a firsthand account of Buddhism’s journey into American culture.

Her path took her through Japan, India, and Nepal and into encounters with artists, activists, and influential Buddhist teachers, eventually leading her to found Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Join us as Helen reads from Lotus Girl and talks with Kell Julliard about spiritual seeking, meditation, aging, the sometimes messy encounter between East and West, and what decades of Buddhist practice can teach us about living meaningfully now.

No knowledge of Buddhism or meditation is needed—just curiosity about how a life changes when we begin asking what truly matters.

This event will take place in the Parish Hall of Grace Church. Enter through the glass door found at the end of the sidewalk at 16 Spring Street, Amherst.

Helen Tworkov is the founding editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the first independent Buddhist magazine, and the author of Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers. With Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, she is the co-author of Turning Confusion into Clarity, In Love with the World, and A World of Difference, forthcoming in February 2027. Her memoir, Lotus Girl: My Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America, was a Library Journal best book of the year and received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. She lives in New York City and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Kell Julliard is Chief Meditation Officer for the Institute for Meditation Brainwave Research and a senior guide for the Tergar Meditation Community's Joy of Living Program. He is certified through the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. He served as director of clinical research for Lutheran Medical Center, NYU Langone Brooklyn, and the Sunset Park Family Health Center and has published four peer-reviewed articles on teaching meditation to health care professionals. For this event, Kell joins Helen Tworkov for a wide-ranging conversation about the experiences behind Lotus Girl and the questions her extraordinary journey raises for anyone seeking a more examined and meaningful life.