Cynthia Flood (b. September 17, 1940) is a Canadian short-story writer and novelist. The daughter of novelist Luella Creighton and historian Donald Creighton, she grew up in Toronto (with 2 years in England). After attending the University of Toronto she spent some years in the US, and came to British Columbia in 1969.
She has been active in many socialist, feminist, anti-war, and environmental groups, and in the faculty union during her years as an English instructor at Langara College. She has also taught creative writing in Simon Fraser University's Writing & Publishing program.
Cynthia Flood's collections of short stories include The Animals In Their Elements (Talonbooks, 1987) and My Father Took A Cake To France (Talonbooks, 1992).[1] The title story of the latter won the Journey Prize in 1990.[1] Her short fiction has been published in various Canadian literary magazines and widely anthologized, and has appeared in Best Canadian Stories three times.[2] Her first novel was Making A Stone of the Heart (Key Porter, 2002).
Her latest collection, The English Stories was published in April 2009. Reviewing the book for the Toronto Globe and Mail, Lynda Grace Philippsen described it as "perfect summer reading. Without being light or trite it can be picked up and put down with ease, and the characters linger with the reader long after."[3] These short fictions are set in 1950s England, in a small residential hotel in Oxford and a girls' school. One story, "Religious Knowledge," won the National Magazine Gold Award in 2000, after its publication in PRISM International. Another, "Learning To Dance," is included in Best Canadian Stories 2008, edited by John Metcalf.