About Cynthia W. Gentry

When I was nine, I self-published a book of ghost tales and stories about talking animals, including a lion cub whose mother warned her that if she roared, no one would ever want to marry her. The cub roared anyway.

Today, I write about brilliant, slightly messy women finding their voices while navigating ambition and love. My debut novel, Her Life in Ruins, a friends-to-lovers rom-com about archaeology and very illicit antiquities, is the inaugural title of akaSTORY, Abrams Books’ new adult fiction imprint.

I’m also the author of seven nonfiction books on sex and relationships, including What Men Really Want in Bed and its sequel, What Women Really Want in Bed, which have been translated into several languages. I’ve been interviewed by magazines like Glamour and Cosmopolitan as a sex expert, which was unexpected and a bit hilarious.

I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for college and never left. I hold a BA in English from Stanford University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. I write about the literary life, parenting as an empty nester, and movies in my Substack newsletter, The Mind Reels. I also share behind-the-scenes updates, early news, and special invitations with my VIP email list. Come say hi!