Clara H. Mountcastle (26 November 1837 – 24 May 1908)[1] was a Canadian artist and author who published her early work under the pseudonym Caris Sima.

[1][2] At that time she attended a private girls’ school for a term and took instruction from an English artist, one Chatterton, in working from nature.

[2] Her first two books, The Mission of Love (poems, 1882) and A Mystery (novella, 1886) came out under the pseudonym Caris Sima, which she derived from her childhood nickname of 'Carissima'.

[1] She earned praise for her ability to write poems in a wide range of forms spanning from hymns to dialect verse, though she did not handle all equally well and her poems tended towards conventional sentimentality rather than originality.

[1] Recurring subjects included rural life, ill-fated love, and attacks on critics.