Cynthia Lane Cahn was April 28, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan. She attended Kingswood School where she graduated in 1966 and Kalamazoo College where she received a B.A. in 1970. She then moved to Florida where she worked in the Museum of Florida History and at Florida Atlantic University in the university library from 1975-1980. She was also an associate editor for Palindrome Press. She died July 7, 1983 in Tallahassee, Florida of cancer. Anhinga Press established the Cynthia Cahn Memorial Award for poetry.

Cahn was an accomplished poet. Her work appeared in Apalachee Qua•terly, The Centennial Review, Cumberland Journal, Earthwise, Fiesta, Florida Arts Gazette, Good Food Literary Magazine, New Collage, Southern Humanities Review, and The Sun among others. In 1982, she also published a small collection of poems titled “The Day the Sun Split” (Anhinga Press) which won the 1982 Anhinga Florida Poetry Chapbook Award.