When you work for the common good, one of the blessings is the network you enter; the people you meet who work from the deepest place in their hearts, inspiring others to be their best selves; to reach to the depths of their own gifts and creativity. Deena Metzger is one of those, the physical expression of the Wise Woman archetype. It is a pleasure to be able to present a conversation with her—to share it with you.

A poet, novelist, essayist, storyteller, teacher, healer and medicine woman who has taught and counseled for over fifty years, Deena has spent a lifetime investigating Story as a form of knowing and healing. She conducts training groups on the spiritual, creative, political and ethical aspects of healing and peacemaking, individual, community and global, drawing deeply on alliance with spirit, indigenous teachings and the many wisdom traditions. One focus is on uniting Western medical ways with indigenous medicine traditions. She is the author of many books, including the novels; A Rain of Night Birds, (2017), La Negra y Blanca (2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature), Feral; Ruin and Beauty: New and Selected Poems; From Grief Into Vision: A Council; Doors: A Fiction for Jazz Horn; Entering the Ghost River: Meditations on the Theory and Practice of Healing; The Other Hand; What Dinah Thought; Tree: Essays and Pieces; The Woman Who Slept With Men to Take the War Out of Them; and Writing For Your Life. Learn more at her website, www.deenametzger.net.