Cassandra Clare

Judith Lewis (née Rumelt; born July 27, 1973), better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments. Clare was born Judith Rumelt to American parents in Tehran, Iran. She is the daughter of Richard Rumelt, a business school professor and author. Her maternal grandfather was film producer Max Rosenberg.

Clare is Jewish and has described her family as "not religious". As a child, Clare traveled frequently, spending time in Switzerland, England, and France. She returned to Los Angeles for high school and from then on, split her time between California and New York City, where she worked at various entertainment magazines and tabloids, including The Hollywood Reporter. She is also friends with the author Holly Black, and their books occasionally overlap, Clare mentioning characters from Black's novels and vice versa, such as Val and Luis from Black's Valiant.

Her publisher also credits Clare with creating the "City of Fallen Angels treatment" where a tangible "letter" from one character to another is attached to the back of physical copies of a book. The goal is to spur print book sales. As of 2013, Clare resides in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her husband, Joshua Lewis, and three cats. In 2004, Clare started working on her first published novel, City of Bones, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan.

City of Bones was released by Simon & Schuster in 2007 and is a contemporary fantasy story revolving around characters Clary Fray, Jace Wayland, and Simon Lewis, which became a New York Times bestseller upon its release. City of Ashes and City of Glass completed the first trilogy. On Power Place, Cassandra Clare's quotes are included because they give readers a direct way to think about motivation, responsibility, and the choices that shape a life.