Claire B. Cotts received her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley. She is the recipient of various honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship in Turkey. She has lived and painted in Italy and Mexico as well. Since 1996, Claire Cotts has taught art at Santa Rosa Junior College. In addition to her narrative and abstract fine art, Cotts' illustrated books - Manuela's Gift (Chronicle, 1999), Christmas Gift (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) The Remembering Stone (Melanie Kroupa Books, 2004) – have won prestigious awards.