My parents met at a Belize dance on Fifth Avenue in New York City. So, I was born and raised in the City, where I began writing fiction as a child.

 

Later, I studied at Williams College in the Berkshire Mountains, the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. At the University of California at Berkeley, I earned a Certificate of Journalism from the Summer Program for Minority Journalists.

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I began my journalism career as a newspaper reporter in Norfolk, Virginia. I worked at newspapers all over the United States. In 1994, I left the San Francisco Chronicle for Sicily and have been living in Europe since then.

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In 2012, my son and I left a sedentary life in Cornwall, England, for a farming one in the heart of Portugal. We have 4 acres of terraced land with olive trees, grapevines and fruit trees. 

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New York - any city - seems far away in time and space.

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Yet, I am still the child belly-laughing at “I Love Lucy”, reading books within arm’s reach from the Astoria Public Library, and studying ballet and tap near Carnegie Hall.

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I am still a girl from Queens, a first-generation American, giving voice to those without one.

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Read more of my work at  https://www.cynthiaadinakirkwood.com/books