Leadership
Gary Joshin Enns, Director and President
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| Joshin |
One of the founding members of the Zen Fellowship, Gary Joshin Enns began practicing Zen in 2011 under the guidance of Richard Collins Roshi. In 2012 at the New Orleans Zen Temple he received bodhisattva ordination from Robert Livingston Roshi, Collins’ longtime teacher and a close disciple of Master Taisen Deshimaru. In 2016 at the Temple, Enns received monastic ordination from Collins. In 2022 Collins certified Enns as shusso (teacher).
Enns holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. His writing has appeared in literary and contemplative journals such as Granta, Missouri Review, Crazyhorse, Sweeping Zen, Southern Humanities Review, and The Wayfarer: A Journal of Contemplative Literature. In 2015 he wrote the glossary for Collins’ latest book, No Fear Zen. Currently, he co-edits and contributes articles and poems to Here and Now: the Newsletter of the American Zen Association.
Professor and chair of English at Cerro Coso College, Enns teaches literature, composition, and creative writing. In addition to leading practice at the Dustbowl Dojo, he enjoys acting, surfing, skiing, and music.
Enns lives in Bakersfield, California with his wife Cortnie and three children.
Richard Collins Roshi, Founder
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| Richard Collins at Ablin House, Bakersfield Photo by Cortnie Enns |
Born in Eugene, Oregon, Richard grew up in Southern California, earning degrees in literature from the University of Oregon (BA) and the University of California, Irvine (MA and PhD). He has held a Fulbright-Hays fellowship to London, an NEH fellowship to Columbia University, and a Leverhulme Commonwealth/USA fellowship in American Studies at Swansea University in Wales. He taught for five years in Eastern Europe as a Fulbright lecturer at the Universities of Bucharest and Timisoara in Romania and at the American University in Bulgaria. As RosaMary Endowed Professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana, he edited the Xavier Review for several years.
Dean Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Bakersfield (2010-2016), Richard is currently Chief Academic Officer for the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA).
He has edited AZA books by M. C. Dalley and Philippe Coupey, as well as Taisen Deshimaru’s Mushotoku Mind: The Heart of the Heart Sutra (Hohm Press, 2012). He has also published articles on Charles Johnson’s novel Oxherding Tale (Religion and the Arts) and Kim Ki-Duk’s film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring (New Orleans Review). He has been on the book review staff for the website sweepingzen.com. His most recent book is No Fear Zen: Discovering Balance in an Unbalanced World (Hohm Press, 2015).
Richard founded the Zen Fellowship of Alexandria in 2007, now led by Robert Savage, and the Zen Fellowship of Bakersfield in 2010, now led by Gary Enns. He is Abbot of the New Orleans Zen Temple and successor to its founder, Robert Livingston Roshi.
