Judith Fitzgerald is a graduate of Indiana University and an artisan, calligrapher, and graphic designer. In 2004 Fitzgerald and her husband, Michael, published the first in an award-winning series of illustrated inspirational books on the world’s religions, called “Sacred Worlds”, with titles such as Indian Spirit, The Spirit of Indian Women, Christian Spirit, The Sermon of All Creation, and The Universal Spirit of Islam. The books in this series have received ten prestigious awards. Many of the photographs in this series and in her husband’s other books were taken by her during their travels to visit traditional cultures around the world.

Fitzgerald was born in Richmond, Indiana and met her future husband while they were students at Indiana University.  In 1972 she and her husband spent part of the summer living on the Crow Indian Reservation with Thomas Yellowtail, one of the most revered American Indian spiritual leaders of the past century, and his wife, Susie Yellowtail, who is now enshrined in the Montana Hall of Fame.  

In 1975 the Yellowtails made the first of a series of annual October visits to the Fitzgerald home in Bloomington, Indiana. During that visit Fitzgerald was adopted into the Yellowtail family and the Crow tribe. The Yellowtails were to provide the Fitzgeralds with introductions to many spiritual leaders of other American Indian tribes; thus Judith and Michael Fitzgerald have spent extended periods of time over a period of more than thirty-five years visiting traditional cultures and attending sacred ceremonies throughout the American West, including the sacred rites of the Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, Bannock, and Apache Tribes. They have also spent extended periods of time in traditional Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic cultures.

All royalties for Judith Fitzgerald’s books on American Indians are donated to various American Indian charities, including The American Indian College Fund, Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, for support of Crow, Shoshone and Lakota Sun Dances and to provide books and films to tribal colleges and high schools located on Indian reservations throughout the US and Canada.

The Fitzgerald family provides ongoing financial contributions that include underwriting Crow language textbooks for the Crow Language Consortium and the establishment of a permanent endowment for the Language Conservancy with the Bloomington Community Foundation.

Judith and Michael Fitzgerald have an adult son and live in Bloomington, Indiana.

“One of the great callings of art is to excavate a lost part of our culture, and the Fitzgeralds answer this summons handsomely here in a compact exploration of NativeAmerican women’s spirituality.”
—Publishers Weekly, on The Spirit of Indian Women

“The Spirit of Indian Women … is an act of reclamation as much as of spirituality: it reproduces precious and seldom-seen photographs of Native American women, most of them from the later 19th century. Their images are interwoven with oral accounts, songs, and other documents that offer priceless glimpses into the little-understood lives and experiences of America’s foremothers…. The Spirit of Indian Women is a special treasure. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal, on The Spirit of Indian Women

“A copy of this beautiful little book [Christian Spirit] should be in every home. Offering after offering overwhelms us with consciousness of Heaven’s generosity to Christianity in the way of sacred art.”
—Martin Lings, author of Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions

“The Sermon of All Creation is founded on the very ancient and venerable Christian tradition of insight drawn from ‘God’s second Book.’ Dazzling photographs, saturated with color, share pages with quotations from the likes of Catherine of Siena, Augustine of Hippo, and William Penn; the volume includes an index of authors for easy reference.”
—Library Journal, on The Sermon of All Creation: Christians on Nature

“This book [The Universal Spirit of Islam: From the Koran and Hadith] sets out to explore if these sources [the Koran and hadith] provide a basis for improving interfaith relations. The Fitzgeralds give the reader space to come to their own conclusions, not taking sides in their preface. Their selections of Koranic and hadith passages show a unique sensitivity to and understanding of Islam. Accompanied by lovely photographs … as well as reprints of Islamic art and illuminated Korans, the titular ‘spirit’ of Islam comes across as reflective, wise, and bridge-building. The Fitzgeralds have reorganized some of Islam’s most sacred texts and art in an easy-to-understand format, not only underscoring the interfaith resources in Islam but the spiritual side of Islam as well.”
—Publishers Weekly

Books

Indian Spirit, edited by Michael Fitzgerald. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2003; second edition (Indian Spirit: Revised and Enlarged), edited by Michael Fitzgerald and Judith Fitzgerald. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006.; Merkmal Ltd, 2011 (Japanese edition).

Christian Spirit, edited by Michael Fitzgerald and Judith Fitzgerald. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2004.

The Sermon of All Creation: Christians on Nature, edited by Michael Fitzgerald and Judith Fitzgerald. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2005.

The Spirit of Indian Women, edited by Michael Fitzgerald and Judith Fitzgerald. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2005.; Ankh-Hermes Uitgeverij, forthcoming (Dutch edition).

The Universal Spirit of Islam: From the Koran and Hadith, edited by Michael Fitzgerald and Judith Fitzgerald. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006; New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2007.