Cyn's poems, essays and stories explore the prairie landscapes of her Midwestern upbringing. A conservationist, chicken farmer and amateur photographer, she is most contented to be grounded in the dirt of home, tending something green and alive. She is the author of Ten Tongues, a collection of short stories, and her poems and essays that can be found in Fourth River, American Writers Review, Poetry South, Poetry Quarterly and Cutleaf. An associate professor of English at Knox college, Cyn teaches fiction and creative nonfiction writing, the occasional literature course and an editorial skills course. Cyn recently completed her first full length collection of poems, Broken Hallelujah, and is at work on a novel and a memoir.  She lives in the heart of Forgottonia, a downstate region on the Illinois prairie, dubbed so for its political obscurity hidden in the massive shadow of Chicago. Out on the open prairie, Cyn lives quietly and well, with her dog, Doc, two rescue cats, one old and one young, and a small brood of chickens.