Cyn Vargas’ short story collection, On The Way, received positive reviews from Shelf Awareness, Library Journal, Heavy Feather Review, Necessary Fiction, among others. Book accolades include: Book Scrolling’s Best Short Story Collections of All Time, Newcity Lit’s Top 5 Fiction Books by Chicago Authors, Chicago Book Review’s Favorite Books of 2015, Bustle’s 11 Short Story Collections Your Book Club Will Love, and Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Honorable Mention (2015).
Cyn’s work has been published in Split Lip Magazine, Word Riot, Chicago Reader Fiction Issue, Allium Magazine, Hypertext Magazine, 3Elements Review, Midnight Breakfast, and elsewhere. She received a Top 25 Finalist and Honorable Mention in two of Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers contests, winner of the Guild Literary Complex Prose Award in Fiction, and a semi-finalist for the Holland Prize in Fiction. Her work was also chosen as a Selected Short by Symphony Space and was produced live on stage and is available on podcast.
Furthermore, she is faculty in short fiction at StoryStudio Chicago, and voted Stories Matter Foundation's 2022 Instructor of the Year. She is also a member of the Curatorial Board for the Ragdale Foundation, and on the Board of Directors for Hypertext Studio.
Cyn earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago and is a proud first-generation American, with El Salvadoran and Guatemalan roots.