Deborah Grochau earned a B.A. in Central European Studies from Vassar College in New York and an M.A. in history from California State University, Hayward before embarking on a thirty-year career in education. In 2014, she received a Research Grant for German Exile Studies from the University of Southern California that paid her expenses while she conducted research at the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library on the USC campus. She has traveled extensively in Europe and the United States to research her historical novel, I’ll Be Seeing You. While a nomad at heart, she currently resides in Northern California.

Deborah is a finalist in the Historical Novel Society Short Story Contest. Her short story, “The Last Frontier,” appears in an anthology that debuted at the HNS conference in Las Vegas NV June 26-27, 2025. The story is based on Josephine Baker's efforts to integrate a Las Vegas casino in 1952. Ms. Baker also makes a cameo appearance in Deborah's historical novel about refugees trapped in France during World War II.