Cynthia Rylant was born in Hopewell, Virginia, on June 6th, but lived with her grandparents in Coolridge, West Virginia after her parents divorced and her mother started nursing school. Her grandparents' house had no electricity or running water. Rylant's family had no car. Growing up, she loved comic books, cats and dogs, pajama parties, and the Beatles. She says she was too busy playing to be particularly creative. "Playing is the greatest training you can have for being a writer. It helps you love life, it helps you relax, it helps you cook up interesting stuff in your head."
Rylant attended the University of Charleston and obtained a master's degree in English at Marshall University. She got a job working in the children's section at the Akron Public Library. She then became a professional librarian and completed a master's of library science degree at Kent State. Cynthia Rylant's first book was When I Was Young in the Mountains. It was illustrated by Diane Goode and won an American Book Award and Caldecott Honor in 1982. She has written more than sixty books, many of them award-winning, including Missing May, which won a Newbery Honor and Boston Globe/Horn Book Award in 1993. Rylant lives in Oregon with son Nate, dogs Martha Jane and Leia, and cats Blueberry and Edward Velvetpaws. Her favorite thing to do is to go to the movies in the middle of the afternoon.
