Location
About
Celebrate Helen Tworkov’s memoir, Lotus Girl: My Life at the Crossroads of Buddhism and America, at this free LiteraryArts@SPAC event, presented in collaboration with Skidmore College and The Tang Teaching Museum.
Moderated by Benjamin Bogin, Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Skidmore College, with an introduction by SPAC Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Sobol, the conversation will explore Tworkov’s spiritual journey, her upbringing in New York’s art world as the daughter of artist Jack Tworkov, Buddhism’s evolution in the West, and the experiences that inspired her memoir. Set against the Vietnam War and the American counterculture, Lotus Girl traces her search for meaning and truth through Japan, Cambodia, India, and Nepal, where she encountered influential Buddhist teachers.
At 22, after seeing a photograph of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc, Tworkov set off for Japan and later traveled through Asia in search of a deeper understanding of truth and the self. She founded The Tricycle Foundation in 1990, helping bring Buddhist perspectives and teachings to a wider Western audience through Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
In Lotus Girl, Tworkov reflects on encounters with figures from the worlds of art and spirituality, including the Dalai Lama, Pema Chödrön, Charles Mingus, and Richard Serra. Blending personal experience with research and reflection, she explores the intersection of Buddhist wisdom and American values, and the search for belonging, meaning, and a place to call home.
Lotus Girl will be available for purchase onsite through Northshire Bookstore, with a signing to follow the discussion.
Helen Tworkov is the founding editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and the author of Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers. With Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, she co-authored 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 Publishers Weekly. A new paperback edition will be published in November 2026. She lives in New York City and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.