The author of seven collections of poetry, Maurya Simon lives in the Angeles National Forest of California’s San Gabriel Mountains and is a professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside. In 1990 she went to India as a Fulbright/Indo-American Fellow, and her work shows a recurring interest in the relations between nature, spirituality and the arts. Her 2004 publication Ghost Orchid was a finalist for the National Book Award.