Cynthia Crane is the author of Divided Lives: The Untold Stories of Jewish-Christian Women in Nazi Germany (St Martin’s Press/Macmillan), a hybrid book of nonfiction encompassing memoir and historical narrative, and a book for young readers All About Winston Churchill (Blue River Press). Her essays, poetry, and book reviews have appeared in various publications, and she has presented papers at a variety of academic conferences. By invitation, she has been a Text Evaluator for two composition textbooks (Bedford/St. Martin’s and Longman), and a reader/advisor for seven books thus far, a few of which were authored by professors or former students. Five of these were published by established publishing houses.

Cynthia attended Wittenberg University, a liberal arts college, where, she claims, she socialized a bit too much, and after graduating with a B.A. worked in public relations, advertising, and promotions for approximately six years until she was offered a scholarship at Xavier University, another stellar liberal arts college, where, she said, she was more studious and completed her M.A. in English. Soon after, she was accepted into a doctoral program in literature and creative writing, and received her PhD from the University of Cincinnati. Currently she is an associate professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, BAC, and Affiliate Faculty in Judaic Studies. She teaches literature, composition, and creative writing.

Cynthia has received awards including a Fulbright Scholarship to Germany, a P.E.O. National Scholar’s Award, and a Holocaust Education Foundation Summer Institute Fellowship. In addition, by invitation, she was the nonfiction faculty for The Antioch Writers’ Workshop and presented workshops for The Mad Anthony Writers’ Workshop. She also was accepted to and attended Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Cynthia has appeared on national radio and television programs, including C-Span’s Book TV. She has been a keynote speaker for and given numerous talks to myriad groups and organizations in the U.S. and abroad. She is involved in community service activities, primarily presentations and workshops, for schools, universities, and organizations. She was a speaker for the OH Humanities Speakers Bureau for twelve years, and can be contacted directly for speaking engagements. Her C/V is available upon request.

A note from Cynthia: My childhood and youth sped by in a boisterous and active family with cousins and neighbors in and out of our house near Cincinnati, Ohio. My father worked for various companies in the business world, and my mother was a pre-school teacher. When I was young, I was lucky to see the Reds (the infamous Big Red Machine) play baseball, and to hear Cincinnati’s first-rate symphony and opera at Music Hall. Early on I wrote stories and poems, and marionette plays that my siblings and I performed for the neighborhood. I also created a weekly neighborhood newspaper, acquired subscribers, and hired one of my brothers to write the sports column. I learned piano and clarinet at a young age, and played in my schools’ concert and marching bands, and many regional competitions for solo clarinet performance. I put my instruments aside for a while namely because writing and editing for my high school literary journal and newspaper, and later college newspaper, took over my interest and time, and I continued on that long writing path. Decades later, I took up the clarinet again, and joined a community concert band to give others the pleasure of music. I am also an animal lover and an advocate for rescue. In 2020, our beloved Lab-Border Collie, “Lucy in the Sky,” who was rescued from a farm, passed away. Currently, I have three rescued pets; most recently, an adorable pup!