About Me
Cindy Stodola Pomerleau
essayist, memoirist, blogger
I grew up in the tiny Jersey Shore town of Shark River Hills until I was thirteen, then moved to Northport on the north shore of Long Island. I attended Smith College, where I earned B.A. in English, followed by a master's degree from Columbia and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, both in 18th century English literature.
Graduating during an employment drought in the humanities and unable to pursue the career I'd spent so long preparing for, I accepted a position as Director of the Oral History Project on Women in Medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and my life started down a different path. After moving to West Hartford, Connecticut, I pursued an additional degree in psychology and neuroscience and then spent the rest of my professional career on the research faculty of the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry, with a particular focus on cigarette smoking and nicotine dependence in women.
Whatever else I was doing in life, I continued to write books for adults and children, short stories, and newspaper and magazine articles. Having retired, I now devote full time to my "postprofessional career" of memoir- and essay-writing. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Ovide, my husband of nearly 60 years, and a cat named Domino who graciously allows us to share his home. (Truth in labeling: The cat on the header is not Domino but one of his predecessors, Tabasco.) We have two daughters, two sons-in-law, two grandchildren aged 22 and 17, and four grand-cats.
Graduating during an employment drought in the humanities and unable to pursue the career I'd spent so long preparing for, I accepted a position as Director of the Oral History Project on Women in Medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and my life started down a different path. After moving to West Hartford, Connecticut, I pursued an additional degree in psychology and neuroscience and then spent the rest of my professional career on the research faculty of the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry, with a particular focus on cigarette smoking and nicotine dependence in women.
Whatever else I was doing in life, I continued to write books for adults and children, short stories, and newspaper and magazine articles. Having retired, I now devote full time to my "postprofessional career" of memoir- and essay-writing. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Ovide, my husband of nearly 60 years, and a cat named Domino who graciously allows us to share his home. (Truth in labeling: The cat on the header is not Domino but one of his predecessors, Tabasco.) We have two daughters, two sons-in-law, two grandchildren aged 22 and 17, and four grand-cats.
At our vacation home in Braintree, VT, 1978: Writing vacations are the best vacations!