Cynthia Walker, who has taught English composition at Santa Barbara City College for fifteen years, is joining the UCSB Writing Program. She received her BA in journalism and her MA in English from San Francisco State University. In addition to teaching at SBCC, she has also taught at Ventura College.

Cynthia is not only a devoted teacher she is also an avid writer. She enjoys writing fiction on the side and has had several short stories published in various literary journals. Her first novel, The Paradise Club, was a semi-finalist in the 2014 James Jones First Novel Fellowship Contest and Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It is currently in submission and represented by the literary agency Sterling Lord Literistic. In addtion, her short story entitled "An Interested Party" based on a chapter from the novel, won second place in the Cutthroat Journal of the Arts 2011 short fiction competition. Cynthia's short stories have also appeared in Onethebus and The Santa Barbara Independent. Prior to teaching, Cynthia worked as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and contributed stories to SF Weekly, The San Francisco Independent, and Prism Magazine.

Growing up in Santa Barbara, Cynthia enjoys hiking, yoga, and cooking. She is also adventurous. At the age of twenty she walked across the United States.