The bestselling author of multiple books on Neopaganism, feminism, and peaceful political advocacy, Starhawk helped shape the resurgence of Goddess worship in the West. Born Miriam Simos, Starhawk attended college and graduate school at UCLA. In 1973, while still a student, she earned the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for her novel A Weight of Gold, but further attempts at fiction writing were unsuccessful. She began exploring Neopaganism and Wicca as a participant, researcher, teacher, and leader, publishing The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, in 1979. The book became a bestseller, launching Starhawk’s career as an activist and spokesperson for Wicca, the peace movement, and ecofeminism. The following year she cofounded Reclaiming, a Neopagan collective centered around Goddess worship and political activism. She has written extensively on her beliefs that women have an affinity for the generative powers of nature; that their roles as healers, poets, and teachers have been erased from history by the patriarchy; and that patriarchal systems will crumble as women reclaim their power. Beyond her own books, she has contributed to Beliefnet.com and On Faith, an online forum run by Newsweek and the Washington Post.