Cynthia Clampitt

Cynthia Clampitt is a writer, speaker, geographer, and food historian. She is the author of Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland, as well as of the award-winning travel narrative, Waltzing Australia. In addition, she has written textbooks for almost every major educational publisher in the U.S., including the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and National Geographic Learning.

Clampitt is also a popular speaker with a growing list of programs. In 2012, her travel presentations were named “Best of the Best” by the Library Administrators Conference of Northern Illinois. Her “Rule of Rum” presentation was accepted by the Illinois Humanities Council for their 2014 “Road Scholar” program. And in 2015, she was flown to Philadelphia to give her “Seeking Spiceland” program for the Geographic Society.

In addition to the Society of Midland Authors, Clampitt is a member of the Society of Women Geographers, Culinary Historians of Chicago, the Midwest History Association, and the Association of Food Journalists. Her love of geography and food history has taken her to 37 countries on six continents.