Since 2002, Leah Kotkes has been developing a career and respected name as a columnist and features writer, and more recently as a features editor and writing mentor in the Jewish world while being a wife, mother and homemaker.

Born in London, England in 1963, Leah— who formerly went by her English name Vanessa—embarked on a career as a fashion publicist at the age of eighteen and associated with some of today’s high profile names in the fashion and media world. In 1990, following her dream to be a writer she accepted a newsroom position at Independent Television News (ITN).

Despite her speedy climb up the career ladder without a university education, Leah eventually became disenchanted with London life. Spiritually perplexed and certain there was more to life than her career, she became a seeker of the Truth, traveling to a number of foreign lands.

The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest, her first book, is the compelling, poignant story of her search for a more meaningful, balanced life with personal peace of mind. Life’s ordeals, triumphs and joys are threads in the fabric of the author’s own evolution which eventually led to her settling in Jerusalem in 1993.

Today, Leah Kotkes’s name as a woman’s writer is beloved among her readers in Jewish homes in English-speaking communities in the world.