Patricia Leavy, Ph.D., is an independent sociologist and bestselling author. She has published over thirty books, earning commercial and critical success in both nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into many languages. Among her book publications, she is the author of Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice, now in its third edition, and Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods, Arts-Based, and Community-Based Participatory Approaches. She is series creator and editor for ten book series with Oxford University Press, Guilford Press, and Brill/Sense, including the ground-breaking Social Fictions series. She is also cofounder and co-editor-in-chief of Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal. She has received numerous accolades for her books.

Recently, her novel Film won the 2020 American Fiction Award for Inspirational Fiction, her novel Spark won the 2019 American Fiction Award for Inspirational Fiction and the 2019 Living Now Book Award for Adventure Fiction, and her Handbook of Arts-Based Research won the 2018 USA Best Book Award for best academic book. She has received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2018, she was honored by the National Women's Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the "Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice." Her website is www.patricialeavy.com.