A professional writer and journalist before he entered the college classroom, Tracy Lee Simmons began freelancing for a range of newspapers and magazines in the late 1980s. Periodicals that have published his work range from the New York Times and the Washington Times to the New Criterion and National Review.

In the 1990s, he completed classical studies with an emphasis on Greek and Latin history, literature, and philosophy at the University of Oxford in Great Britain. While working toward his master's degree at Oxford, he lectured at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He went on to serve eight years as a professor of Honors humanities.

Mr. Simmons is the author of the 2002 book Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin, which featured a foreword by respected intellectual William F. Buckley, Jr., and received a 2005 Paideia Prize from the Circe Institute. He continues to write for various publications.