Diane Frank, poet, novelist, teacher, and musician, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how her creative life has evolved over the years. She discusses her award-winning poetry and fiction, her experience guiding writers in the classroom, her life as a cellist in orchestras, and the many ways in which the TM technique has supported her artistic process and deepened her creativity.

A longtime practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi^® programs, Diane Frank is the author of eight books of poetry, three novels, and a photo memoir documenting her 400-mile trek through the Nepalese Himalayas. Her book of poems, While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems, won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. She is also editor of three best-selling anthologies: Fog and Light: San Francisco Through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here; Pandemic Puzzle Poems; and River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the 21st Century.

Diane Frank … discusses her award-winning poetry and fiction, her experience guiding writers in the classroom, her life as a cellist in orchestras, and the many ways in which the TM technique has supported her artistic process and deepened her creativity.

Ms. Frank leads poetry, fiction, and memoir workshops at San Francisco State University and Dominican University of California. She is chief editor at Blue Light Press and directs Blue Light at the Gallery, a reading and concert series in San Rafael, California. She also plays cello with the College of Marin Symphony Orchestra, and, for 18 years, played with the Golden Gate Symphony.

Her first novel, Blackberries in the Dream House, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was entered for consideration for the Pulitzer Prize. Her new novel, Mermaids and Musicians, has been on the best-seller list.

Christine Albers, host of TM Talks, interviewed Diane Frank. This interview was aired on November 30, 2025.