Leigh Podgorski

I have been writing since I could hold a #2 pencil against a blue-lined yellow pad. The diversity of the Earth enthralls me--

her sweep of cultures, her stunning mythologies and allegories, her vibrant, magnificent colors. While still suffering the loss of my mother, I was privileged to interview Dr. Elisabeth Kubler- Ross for my play Windstorm. Dr Ross and her work were essential in my healing. While producing the play festival Celebrate Women, I met another remarkable woman — Cahuilla elder, scholar, and healer Dr. Katherine Siva Saubel. From her oral history, I created the play We Are Still Here. Later, as a recipient of a California Council for the Humanities grant, I was able to adapt the play to a documentary. My debut novel, The Women Debrowska (loosely based on my family), features family tales intertwined with 250 years of Polish history. Ouray's Peak is a coming-of-age novel that follows the journey of Kristin Tabor as she treks cross-country and through the majestic Rocky Mountains to find her mother and her heart. The Stone Quest Series: Desert Chimera, Gallows Ascending, and Neuri Shapeshifter is the story of recluse, tracker, and reluctant psychic visionary, Luke Stone. With artist/illustrator Kait Matthews, we created Flowerwise: Oracle Card Deck and Guidebook, and Feathers of Wisdom, presenting 44 tales of Indigenous women. In many ways, Feathers of Wisdom is the defining piece of my life's work--giving voice to the women who have been silenced too long. Within the pages dwells wisewomen and healers, warriors and heroines, mothers and daughters who pass down their stories in an unbroken chain. We need their wisdom now more than ever. We need their hope and peace, their enlightened guidance to a world that exists in harmony and balance. We need to remember: We Are All One.