Claire B. Willis and Marnie Crawford Samuelson are co-authors of Opening to Grief: Finding Your Way from Loss to Peace.

Claire B. Willis is a clinical social worker who has worked in the fields of oncology and bereavement for more than 20 years. As a lay Buddhist chaplain ordained by Joan Halifax, she focuses on contemplative practices for end-of-life care. A co-founder of the Boston nonprofit Facing Cancer Together, Claire leads bereavement, end-of-life, support, and therapeutic writing groups. An experienced yoga teacher, she is the author of two books, Lasting Words: A Guide to Finding Meaning Toward the Close of Life and her newest book, Opening to Grief: Finding Your Way from Loss to Peace, co-authored with Marnie Crawford Samuelson.

Marnie Crawford Samuelson is a documentary photographer, filmmaker, and storyteller. She is the principal photographer of two books—The Wild Braid, a collaboration with poet laureate Stanley Kunitz and poet Genine Lentine, published by W.W. Norton, and Lasting Words with Claire Willis. Her photos have appeared in national and international magazines including Newsweek, People, U.S. News & World Report, and Smithsonian. She has shot and codirected several award-winning short films. Marnie has a BA in political theory from Stanford and an MSc in business from the Sloan School at MIT. She lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and Berkeley, California. BostonPictureGroup.com