Flo­rence Reiss Kraut is a native New York­er, raised and edu­cat­ed in New York City. She holds a BA in Eng­lish and an MSW in social work. She worked as a clin­i­cian, a fam­i­ly ther­a­pist, and final­ly, CEO of a fam­i­ly ser­vice agency before retir­ing to write and trav­el wide­ly. She has writ­ten sto­ries for chil­dren and teens, romance sto­ries for nation­al mag­a­zines, lit­er­ary sto­ries, and per­son­al essays for the Westch­ester sec­tion of The New York Times.