Claire B. Willis is a clinical social worker working in the field of oncology and bereavement for more than 20 years. She's a former staff member of the Wellness Community, a national organization, and cofounder of the Boston nonprofit Facing Cancer Together. For more than two decades, she has led bereavement, end-of-life, support, and therapeutic writing groups. She has co-taught Spiritual Resources for Healing the Mind, Body, and Soul at Andover Newton Theological School. She maintains a private practice in Brookline, Massachusetts. As a lay Buddhist chaplain ordained by Joan Halifax at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, she focuses on contemplative practices for end-of-life care. For the past five years, she has been a student of Koshin Paley Ellison, a founding teacher at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

Marnie Crawford Samuelson is a documentary photographer, multimedia producer, and storyteller. Her photographs have appeared in national magazines and in two books: Lasting Words, with Claire Willis, and The Wild Braid, with poets Stanley Kunitz and Genine Lentine. She has directed and photographed several short films. She lives in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and Berkeley, California.