Buddhist Women on the Edge: Contemporary Perspective from the Western Frontier (1996), edited by Marianne Dresser, consists largely of non-Oriental women discussing the importance of Buddhist thought in their own lives. Hirshfield's "What Is the Emotional Life of a Buddha?" is included.

Gary Snyder is one of the more prominent Zen poets writing in America today. One of his most popular collections, Turtle Island (1974), is also the most revealing of Zen influence in America. The title comes from a Native American term for the continent of North America, and Snyder's poems speak to a desire to reclaim the environmental harmony that once existed here. This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975.

In 2000, Newsweek magazine's religion editor, Kenneth Woodward, published The Book of Miracles: The Meaning of the Miracle Stories in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Here, Woodward uses his easily...