Clare Simons was the press person and gatekeeper to the stories of the terminally ill patient-plaintiffs defending Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act at the U.S. Supreme Court and worked for the passage of assisted dying laws in several states. She is a member of PEN International, the Women’s National Book Association, and a former cohort at the Pinewood Table in Portland, Oregon, as well as the Ocean Beach Writers Collective in San Diego. Simons has been widely published; her essays about Amma, India’s hugging saint, appeared in Parabola and Spirituality & Health. Her essay, “The Greatest,” appeared on the official Muhammad Ali website alongside works by Joyce Carol Oates and Norman Mailer. Publication of her memoir is forthcoming.