Cynthia Ozick was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. She received a B.A. from New York University and a M.A. from Ohio State University. She is a 1982 Guggenheim Fellow and received a Mildred and Harold Strauss Living award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She writes about politics, history, and literary criticism. The Holocaust is a recurring theme, and she often writes about life as a Jewish American.