Clarissa Pinkola Estés, born January 27, 1945, is an American poet, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist who was raised in now nearly vanished oral and ethnic traditions. She is a first-generation American who grew up in a rural village, population 600, near the Great Lakes. Of Mexican Mestiza, and majority Magyar and minority Swabian tribal heritages, she comes from immigrant and refugee families who could not read or write, or who did so haltingly. Much of her writing is influenced by her family people, who were farmers, shepherds, hopsmeisters, wheelwrights, weavers, orchardists, tailors, cabinet makers, lacemakers, knitters and horsemen and horsewomen from the old countries.

Estés is managing editor for themoderatevoice.com, a news and political blog where she also writes on issues of culture, soul and politics. She is also a columnist on issues of social justice, spirituality and culture in her column archived as El Rio Debajo del Rio (the river underneath the river) on the National Catholic Reporter website.