Episode 15: Interview with Jamie Della

Jamie Della lives in the Eastern Sierra, where she vacationed every summer and winter as a child. She has a writer’s spirit and a free-spirited, untamable soul and spends her time writing, making pottery, road tripping and engaging in the sacred art of hosting her vacation rental. She is the mother of a beautiful, smart daughter and two free-spirited, intuitive sons. Her writings are published by The Manifest Station, Edible Institute Magazines, Rebelle Society, and Sage Woman Magazine. She has an essay in Riverdale Ave Books’ #MeToo anthology and a quarterly column called Herbal Journeys with Witches & Pagan Magazine. She is the author of nine books (published as Jamie Martinez Wood and Jamie Wood). Her honors include Best Reference Book from the International Latino Book Awards for the Latino Writers & Journalists and Book of the Month for Rogelia’s House of Magic by Las Comadres Para Americas. Her newest book, The Book of Spells: The Magick of Witchcraft, was released by Ten Speed Press on October 1, 2019. She is currently writing a memoir about the challenges of being a witch author and the sustaining power of sacred sisterhood. She has also spent 20 years researching novel that explores terrapsychology through the lives of three women living beside the same river over the span of 250 years, inspired by her matriarchal family Ranchero history and the nana she never knew. Jamie says of her work, “My writing focuses on earth-based spirituality as a tool and a lifestyle. I have written about connecting to the plant world for physical and spiritual medicine. Maintaining a deep connection with the natural rhythms reinforces my faith in the mystery, infallible lovability, original innocence, and our divine power to co-create in the world. I enjoy exploring female relationships and characters who must call upon their inborn courage and strength to fight social injustice, prejudice, tyrannical relationships, and/or personal demons and limitations. I am interested in the hidden figures of our collective past who have held family and community together while they fought for creative expression, individuality, dignity, and equality. I came of age as a proud Mexican woman during the Feminist Movement, and this has colored the way I see the world. It has taken me a long time to understand that woman’s soft power is not weak.”