Kinley Bryan is an Ohio native who counts numerous Great Lakes captains among her ancestors. Her great-grandfather Walter Stalker was captain of the four-masted schooner Golden Age, the largest sailing vessel in the world when it launched in 1883.

Her love for the inland seas swelled during the years she spent in an old cottage on Lake Erie. She now lives with her husband and children on the Atlantic Coast, where she prefers not to lose sight of the shore.

Kinley graduated summa cum laude from Kent State University with a degree in English, and earned a master’s degree in communication management from John Carroll University. Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury is her first novel.