Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Clarissa Pinkola Estés is a first-generation American writer and Jungian psychoanalyst. She is the author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, which remained on the New York Times best-seller list for 145 weeks and has sold over two million copies. Estés was born in Gary, Indiana, to Emilio Maria Reyés and Cepción Ixtiz, who were from Mexico.

She is a certified senior Jungian analyst. She earned her doctorate from the Union Institute & University in ethno-clinical psychology by studying social and psychological patterns in cultural and tribal groups. She is the author of many books on the journey of the soul. Beginning in 1992 and onward, her work has been published in 37 languages. Her book Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of The Wild Woman Archetype was on the New York Times best-seller list for 145 weeks, as well as other best-seller lists, including USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal.

Estés began her work in the 1960s at the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Illinois. There she worked with World War I, World War II, and Korean and Vietnam War soldiers living with quadriplegia, hindered by the loss of arms and legs. In addition, she has worked at other facilities caring for severely injured children and shell-shocked war veterans and their families. Her teaching of writing, storytelling and traditional medicine practices continued in prisons, beginning in the early 1970s at the Men's Penitentiary in Colorado; the Federal Women's Prison in Dublin, California; the Montview Facility for Youth in Colorado; and other institutions.

Estés served as a board member of the Maya Angelou Minority Health Foundation (now called Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity) at Wake Forest School of Medicine. In addition, Estés served as an appointee by Colorado governors Romer and Owens to the Colorado State Grievance Board of the Department of Regulatory Agencies from 1993 to 2006. She was elected as chair and, for thirteen years, worked with the state of Colorado Attorney General's lawyers, as well as a board of legal experts and helping professionals, to focus on public safety regarding mental health practitioners.

She has been an advisory board member for the National Writers Union, New York, and an advisory board member of the National Coalition Against Censorship, New York. In addition, she is an advisor to El Museo de las Americas, Denver, Colorado, and a contributing editor and storyteller-in-residence for The Bloomsbury Review.

Estés debuted in spoken word performance at Carnegie Hall, New York (2000), along with Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison. Together the author-poets wrote lyrical song-poems for a libretto of woman.life.song. She is also a managing editor for TheModeratevoice.com. She has written for the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, Publishers' Weekly, and The Denver Post. Estés' Guadalupe Foundation has funded literacy projects.

Estés was a recipient of the Keeper of the Lore Award, a Gradiva Award (from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis), a Catholic Press Association award, the Book of the Year Honor Award, American Booksellers Association, and Colorado Authors League Award. She received the Las Primeras Award, "The First of Her Kind," from the Mexican American Women's Foundation, Washington D.C. She is a 2006 inductee into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, which recognizes women of international influence. In addition, Estés is the recipient of the President's Medal for Social Justice.