Cynthia Kraack is the author of four novels including Minnesota Cold, the 2009 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Fiction, and the Ashwood Trilogy. Her short stories have placed in competitions of Glimmer Train, Alligator Juniper Literary Magazine and The Peninsula Pulse's Hal Grutzmacher Literary Contest. She is a graduate of Marquette University and completed her MFA through the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Program in Creative Writing.