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.

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.

[10] 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.

[1][11] In 2004, Clare started working on her first published novel, City of Bones, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan.

The new contemporary series is set in Los Angeles and follow female shadowhunter Emma Carstairs, who was introduced in City of Heavenly Fire.

[20] Clare was accused of plagiarism dating back to 2000–2001 when she was writing the fan fiction work The Draco Trilogy.

[21][22] The Christian Science Monitor wrote in 2013 about how Clare's plagiarism and cyberbullying angered many in the Harry Potter online fandom community.

[28] The lawsuit contended that characters are similar, that "elements are virtually identical" between the books, and that the term "shadow hunters" was copied.

[30] Kenyon later removed the central accusation of copyright violation from the lawsuit, leaving the peripheral issue of cover art and branding similarities.