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Columbus Metropolitan Library
96 S. Grant Ave., Columbus, OH 43215 | 614-645-2275
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Kat Zhang loves traveling to places both real and fictional–the former have better souvenirs, but the latter allow for dragons, so it’s a tough pick. She is the author of the novels the Hybrid Chronicles, The Emperor’s Riddle, and The Memory of Forgotten Things, and the picture books Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao and Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon.
When not writing, spends her free time scribbling poetry, taking photographs, and climbing atop things she shouldn’t.
Karina Yan Glaser is the New York Times best-selling author of The Vanderbeekers series and A Duet for Home. A former teacher as well as employee of New York City’s largest provider of transitional housing for the homeless, Karina is now a contributing editor at Book Riot.
Karina lives in Harlem, New York City, with her husband, two children, and an assortment of rescue animals. One of her proudest achievements is raising two kids who can’t go anywhere without a book.
DeAnn Wiley is a self-taught illustrator with a master’s degree in counseling psychology born and raised in Detroit. She advocates for social justice from the intersection of multiple identities—Black, Woman, Queer, and Disabled— and she stands in solidarity with other marginalized communities outside of her own.
When she’s not painting, she’s learning, growing, and healing, with each phase of her journey depicted in her art. She is the illustrator of Sarah Rising and the Sunday Adventures series; Homegrown is her author-illustrator debut.
Ali Terese writes funny and heartfelt middle grade and YA stories. Free Period is her debut novel. It is a story of friendship and period equity complete with laugh-out-loud shenanigans, delightfully disgusting desserts, and some world-changing crafts.
Visit Ali online for book bonuses, giveaways, and resources like discussion guides, recipes, craftivism projects, and more.
Suma Subramaniam’s picture books include My Name is Long As A River, A Bindi Can Be, Namaste is a Greeting(Crystal Kite Award Winner), She Sang for India, The Runaway Dosa, and more. Suma is also the contributing author of The Hero Next Door (Finalist -Massachusetts Book Award). Her poems have been published in Poetry Magazine, What is Hope?, and other anthologies for children. She lives in Seattle with her family and a dog who will do anything for Indian sweets and snacks.
J. Sass (he/they) is an author whose narrative interests lie at the intersection of identity, neurodiversity, and allyship. He is the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Rainbow Book List Top 10 titles Ellen Outside the Lines, which was also a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, Ana on the Edge, and Just Shy of Ordinary, as well as the co-author of Camp QUILTBAG (with Nicole Melleby).
When he’s not writing, A. J. figure skates and travels as much as possible. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his husband.
Born in Puerto Rico and based in Columbus, Rafael Rosado is a seasoned writer, director and storyboard artist for the animation industry. He began his career at Character Builders in as an assistant animator and worked his way up to become a character designer, storyboard artist and commercial director. He worked on such shows as Fox’s Emmy Award-winning Life With Louie, HBO’s Happily Ever After and Fox’s Where in The World Is Carmen San Diego.
Debbie Rigaud is the author of A Girl’s Guide To Love & Magic, Simone Breaks All The Rules, Truly Madly Royally, and the co-author of Alyssa Milano’s New York Times bestselling Hope series and Sarah Mlynowski’s Best Wishes: The Sister Switch.
Debbie started her career writing for entertainment and teen magazines. She now lives with her husband and children in Columbus.
Jenn Reese (they/she) writes speculative fiction for readers of all ages. Jenn is the author of Every Bird a Prince, the Oregon Book Award-winning A Game of Fox & Squirrels, and the Above World trilogy. They also write short stories for teens and adults.
Jenn lives in Portland, Oregon where they make art, play video games, and build cardboard forts for their cats.
Growing up, Merrill Rainey spent most of his Saturday afternoons drawing, watching monster movies, and going on imaginary adventures. Today, he is a cowboy-boot-wearing, picture-book-creator and paper-toy-maker. Merrill’s work focuses on exploring creativity and imaginative play. His current titles include Roar! I’m a Dinosaur (winner of the Good Housekeeping Best Kids’ Board Book of 2022), Oink! I’m a Pig, and the Color, Cut, Create series.
His newest illustrated title Giants Are Very Brave People, written by Florence Parry Heide, is a reimagined classic picture book about a little giant that learns to be brave with the help of a new friend. Merrill also works for many children’s magazines like Highlights, Ranger Rick, and Humpty Dumpty.
Katie Mazeika is an author/ illustrator who specializes in telling stories based on real people and events. She likes to highlight disabled voices in her work. Katie is the author and illustrator of Annette Feels Free and Beulah Has A Hunch! Katie has illustrated several other books, including three in the Chicken Soup for the Soul: Babies series.
Nicole Melleby, a New Jersey native, is the author of highly praised middle-grade books, including the Lambda Literary finalist Hurricane Season, ALA Notable book How to Become a Planet, Camp QUILTBAG (co-written with A. J. Sass), and The House on Sunrise Lagoon series.
She currently teaches at the Fairleigh Dickinson MFA Creative Writing program and lives with her wife and their cats, whose needs for attention oddly align with Nicole’s writing schedule.
Malia Maunakea is a Hawaiian writer whose middle-grade debut Lei and the Fire Goddess was an Amazon Best Book of the Month and received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. She grew up on Hawaiʻi Island before moving to a valley on Oʻahu in 7th grade.
George is the Lebanese-American author of the Shad Hadid children’s fantasy series and the upcoming graphic novel, Tarik’s Bazaar Adventure. He has also written short stories published in collaboration with UNICEF.
George currently serves as a Creative Writing instructor with Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. He has been a guest of honor as well as a featured speaker for WriteHive, WorldCon, SCBWI, and the Highlights Foundation.
Nashae Jones is a freelance writer and an educator. Her pieces have appeared in publications such as HuffPost, McSweeney’s, Yahoo Voices among others. Currently she lives in Virginia with her husband, two kids, two cats, and one dog. She is passionate about diversity initiatives, especially in children’s literature.
Hugh “H. D.” Hunter is a storyteller, teaching artist, and community organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. He’s the author of Torment: A Novella, the Futureland trilogy, and Something Like Right, as well as the winner of several international indie book awards for multicultural fiction. Hugh is committed to stories about Black kids and their many expansive worlds.
Tatiana Hill (she/her) is a Black and Latina illustrator by day and roller skater by night. Her art journey began alongside her love for anime in the early 2000s and culminated with a BA in Animation. Receiving awards for Best Art Direction, she would later apply her skill set in color and design to illustration.
Born in Los Angeles and a member of the roller skate community there, Tatiana enjoys participating in a space that celebrates diversity, identity, and found family. She illustrated The Roller World Tarot deck and Blood City Rollers, her debut graphic novel as an illustrator.
Margaret Peterson Haddix is the New York Times bestselling author of 50 books for kids and teens. An Ohio native, she worked as a newspaper reporter, a newspaper copy editor, and a community college instructor before her first book was published. Her books,which include the Shadow Children series, the Missing series, and the Greystone Secret series, have been honored with numerous awards and been translated into more than twenty languages.
Magaret’s most recent book, The Ghostly Photos, is the second in the Mysteries of Trash and Treasure series.
Julia Devillers is a bestselling and award-winning author of middle grade and YA fiction and nonfiction books. Her book was turned into the Disney Channel movie “Read It and Weep.” She recently sold a TV pilot to CBS inspired by her life.
Her newest book, Meet Isabel and Nicki, shares the teenage lives of American Girl twins living in the 90s.
Breanna Carzoo is the author-illustrator of the picture books Lou, Greenlight, and The Squish. She crafts illustrations with painted cut-paper collage and mixed media.
Her debut picture book, Lou, was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of 2022, was shortlisted for the 2023 Barnes and Noble Children’s and YA Book Awards, has been named on many state award lists, and both Lou and Greenlight received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly. She lives in Austin, TX, with her husband and dog.
Meghan P. Browne is the award-winning author of Indelible Ann: The Larger-than-Life Story of Governor Ann Richards, Dorothy the Brave, and The Bees of Notre-Dame.
Meghan holds a BA from The University of Arizona and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was born and raised in Austin, Texas where she now lives with her husband, Greg, their three children, a pasture full of goats and chickens, a thriving honeybee apiary, and two ranch dogs named Josie and Cricket.
Lindsay Bonilla is a professional storyteller and author whose previous picture books include Parents’ Choice Award winner Polar Bear Island, I Love You with All of My Hearts, and The Note Who Faced the Music. She lives with her husband, two wild and creative kids, and her dog, Blitzen, in North Canton, Ohio.
Jenn Bishop is the author of five novels for young readers, including the Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner Things You Can’t Say. Her books have been named Junior Library Guild selections and Bank Street College of Education best books and have been finalists for state book awards. She currently calls Cincinnati home.
Veronica Park Anderson (she/they) is a neurodivergent, queer, feminist millennial writer with a resume that Victor Frankenstein would disown for being “a bit much.”
V’s previous job titles include: award-winning community theater actor, professional lecturer on cruise ships, indie film producer, literary agent, and creative project manager; however, “writer” is the title that always fits. V plays competitive flat track roller derby as “Scarlet Five” #55 and prefers the pivot role, aka “surprise jamming.” Born in Alaska and raised in Oregon, she currently lives with her partner in Upstate NY and has two cats named Skeletor and Bo-Catan.
Ann Zhao (she/her) is a student at Wellesley College, where she studies linguistics with a minor in women’s and gender studies. She enjoys cooking, baking, and knitting, but she does not enjoy cleaning up after herself when she’s done with these activities. Dear Wendy is her debut novel.
Justine Pucella Winans is the critically acclaimed author of Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything, The Otherwoods, and One Killer Problem. When not writing, they can be found training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, reading a ton of webcomics and manga, and actively avoiding real life scary situations. They live in Los Angeles with their husband and cats.
LaDarrion Williams is a Los Angeles based-playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter whose goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh and fantastical way. He is currently a resident playwright/co-creator of The Black Creators Collective, where his play UMOJA made its West Coast premiere in January 2022 and produced North Hollywood’s first Black playwrights festival at the Waco Theater Center.
Blood at the Root is his first novel. His viral and award-winning short film based on the same concept, is currently on YouTube and Amazon Prime.
Jonny Garza Villa (they/them) is an author of contemporary young adult literature with characters and settings inspired by their own Tejane, Chicane, and queer identities. Their debut YA novel Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun was a Pura Belpré Honor Book and a Kirkus Best YA Fiction of 2021 selection and their sophomore YA—Ander & Santi Were Here—was a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club selection, an AudioFile Earphone Award Winner, and a Best YA of 2023 selection by Audible.
When not writing, Jonny enjoys reading, playing Dungeons & Dragons, visiting taquerías, listening to Selena, and caring for their many cacti children. They live in San Antonio.
Swati Teerdhala is a storyteller at heart. After graduating from the University of Virginia with a BS in finance and BA in history, she tumbled into the marketing side of the technology industry. She’s passionate about many things, including how to make a proper cup of tea, the right ratio of curd to crust in a lemon tart, and diverse representation in our stories. She currently lives in New York City.
Critically-acclaimed young adult author of more than a dozen books, including the Article Five trilogy, The Deceiversseries, and The Glass Arrow. Kristen Simmons’ writing is inspired by her work with trauma survivors as a mental health therapist. She currently lives with her husband and son in Cincinnati, where she spins stories, herds a small pack of semi-wild dogs, and teaches Jazzercise.
Hal Schrieve grew up in Olympia, Washington. Hir debut novel Out of Salem was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2019. Hal’s poetry has appeared in Vetch magazine, and hir comics have been featured in Stacked Deck Press’s 2018 anthology We’re Still Here. Hal works as a children’s librarian in New York.
Christen Randall (she/they) is a queer, fat, neurodivergent author of queer, fat, neurodiverse books. When they’re not writing joyful stories for the next generation of geeky gay kids, you can find them working at their local library branch or at home planning all the D&D campaigns they’ll run one day, they swear.
Christen lives in Covington, Kentucky. The No-Girlfriend Rule is her debut novel.
Skye Quinlan (they/them) is a queer, autistic author of YA fiction. They’re an avid reader, have an absurd amount of crystals and gemstones, and if they’re not tending to their garden, you can usually find them playing Animal Crossing. Skye lives in Ohio with their wife, two dogs, a snake, and two lizards.
As a lawyer and daughter of Guatemalan and Cuban bakers, Jessica Parra never objects to an extra slice of cake. She’s a Los Angeles native who loves to write about Latinas with big hair (and even bigger dreams), complicated families, and the healing magic of acceptance.
She’s the author of Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success and The Quince Project (both published with Wednesday Books), as well as many unfinished first drafts about cats living their best lives—all nine of them. When she isn’t drafting books you can find her sipping kombucha, cuddling with her kitties, or co-piloting the Millennium Falcon at Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge.
Kellie M. Parker is an award-winning writer of YA fantasy and thrillers. She has college degrees in biology and nautical archaeology, but she’s always found her sense of adventure most satisfied by a great story. When not writing, Kellie can be found teaching her four children, camping, baking, and gardening. She lives with her family in west Michigan.
Susan Lee has had a successful career as a HR executive at some of today’s most successful companies. She now channels her experience into writing lighthearted, quirky stories about the oftentimes hilarious human condition.
Susan is the author of the highly acclaimed young adult romantic comedies Seoulmates and The Name Drop. She currently lives in Southern California with a pack of feisty chihuahuas and a too-hearty obsession with K-pop and K-dramas.
Kim Johnson held leadership positions in social justice organizations as a teen. She’s now a college administrator who maintains civic engagement throughout the community while also mentoring Black student activists and leaders. This Is My America was her debut novel.
She holds degrees from the University of Oregon and the University of Maryland, College Park. Kim lives her best life in Oregon with her husband and two kids.
Jae-Jones (called JJ) is an artist, an adrenaline junkie, and the New York Times bestselling author of the Wintersong duology and the Guardians of Dawn series. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives on the wrong coast, where she can’t believe she has to deal with winter every year. When not writing, JJ can be found working toward her next black belt degree in taekwondo, being run ragged by her twin dogs, Castor and Pollux, or indulging in her favorite hobby — collecting more hobbies.
Fern Haught is an author, illustrator, and adjunct professor based in Cleveland Heights. They love crafting stories incorporating queer characters and their relationships, often set in magical worlds. Their two cats, Binx and Honey, are often looking over their shoulder while they work, and do a great job of being honorary co-authors. When they aren’t creating books they decorate cookies at a local bakery and do background painting for games. The Baker and the Bard is their debut graphic novel.
Michael Thomas Ford is the author of numerous books for both adults and young readers. A five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ books, he has also been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Ignyte Award, and the Firecracker Award. He lives in rural Ohio with his husband and dogs.
Jen Ferguson is Michif/Métis and white, an activist, an intersectional feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD in English and creative writing. Her acclaimed debut, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, won the Governor General’s Award and received six starred reviews.
In her remarkable second novel, Those Pink Mountain Nights, Jen writes about the hurt of a life stuck in past tense, the hum of connections that cannot be severed, and one week in a small snowy town that changes everything.
Ana Ellickson writes about fierce girls, family curses, and everyday magic. The Vanishing Station is her debut novel, inspired by daydreams about jumping portals in the San Francisco subway. Roman the Renegade—her graphic novel script about street art and Filipino monsters—was awarded the 2021 New Visions Honor by Lee & Low Books. She lives in sunny Santa Barbara.
Alex Brown is a queer, biracial Pilipino American writer who loves rooting for the final girl—especially if she’s a monster. Alex is also one of the co-creators and producers of The Bridge, a spooky, folklore-filled audio drama podcast that has over one million downloads to date! Alex’s Young Adult horror-comedy debut, Damned If You Do was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and was also selected for the 2024 TAYSHAS Reading List. Alex also co-edited Night Of The Living Queers, a YA Horror anthology in its second printing.
Nora Shalaway Carpenter’s novels and anthologies have been named “Best of the Year” by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Bank Street Books, and A Mighty Girl, and have won accolades including the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Her newest books, Fault Lines and AB(solutely) NORMAL, were both named to the 2024 TAYSHAS Texas state reading list.
Shalaway Carpenter holds an MFA from VCFA and serves as faculty for the Highlights Foundation’s Whole Novel Workshop. Hailing from rural West Virginia, she aims to disrupt stereotypes surrounding rural people as well as those living with mental health conditions.
Erik J. Brown is the author of genre-blending books for teens. His debut, All That’s Left in the World, was a Goodreads Choice Award Finalist, received a starred review from Kirkus, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Childrens Book Award.
His second novel, Lose You to Find Me was a USA Today Bestseller and received a starred review from School Library Journal. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.
The Only Light Left Burning
Maurice Vellekoop was born in 1964 in a suburb of Toronto. A prolific artist and illustrator, he has worked non-stop for the last three decades. In addition to publications, his corporate clients include Swissair, Abercrombie & Fitch, Air Canada, Smart Car, LVMH, and Bush Irish Whiskey. He lives on Toronto Island with his partner, Gordon Bowness.
Jane Ann Turzillo has been nominated twice for the Agatha for Wicked Women of Ohio and Unsolved Murders & Disappearances in Northeast Ohio. She is also a National Federation of Press Women award-winner for Wicked Cleveland and many others. A full-time author and speaker, she concentrates on true crime and history.
Her current book is Northern Ohio Cold Cases. As one of the original owners of a large weekly newspaper, she covered police, fire and hard news. She holds degrees in Criminal Justice and Mass-Media Communication from The University of Akron.
Peter Stark is an adventurer and historian. Born in Wisconsin, he attended Dartmouth College and University of Wisconsin and set out to write adventure-travel articles about Greenland, Tibet and elsewhere for magazines such as Outside, Smithsonian, and The New York Times Magazine.
Based in Montana, he now specializes in researching and writing historical accounts of early American explorers in wilderness settings and their contact with Indigenous peoples. His most recent book is Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation (Random House, 2023).
Susan Sleeper-Smith is emerita professor of history at Michigan State University. She is author of Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes and editor or co-editor of several essay volumes, including Why You Can’t Teach United States History Without American Indians, Violence in Indigenous Communities: Confronting the Past, Engaging the Present, Rethinking the Fur Trade: Cultures of Exchange in an Atlantic World, Contesting Knowledge: Museums and Indigenous Perspectives, and New Faces of the Fur Trade.
Kathy Schulz is a retired college librarian from Wittenberg University. A native of northeast Ohio, she has deep roots in the state and degrees from three of its universities: a B.S. in Education from Ohio State, an M.L.S. from Kent State, and an M. Hum. from Wright State. This is her first traditionally published book.
Keith O’Brien is the New York Times best-selling author of Paradise Falls, Fly Girls, and Outside Shot, a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, and an award-winning journalist. O’Brien has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Politico, and his stories have also appeared on National Public Radio and This American Life. A native of Cincinnati, he now lives in New Hampshire.
Doug Motz is a lifelong resident of Franklin County and is passionate about Columbus and its history. He is a Past President of the Columbus Historical Society and has led tours for CHS, and the Columbus Landmarks Foundation.
He is a co-author of Kahiki Supper Club: A Polynesian Paradise in Columbus, Ohio, the Lost Restaurants of Columbus and Lost Restaurants of Central Ohio and Columbus. He lives in the Berwick neighborhood of Columbus with his husband Todd Popp and their dog, Gracie.
Lost Restaurants of Central Ohio and Columbus
A graduate of Miami and Ohio State universities, David Meyers is the author of numerous local histories, several novels, and a handful of works for the stage. He is also a lifelong resident of Columbus. For his varied efforts to popularize local history, he was inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.
Highlighting the rich tapestry of Columbus’ firefighting history, the 200th Anniversary History Book presents the most comprehensive historical collection since the organization’s inception in 1822. The 352-page book begins with a detailed accounting of the history of the CFD from 1822 to the present, highlighted with photographs to help tell the department’s story. Nearly 1600 individual photos of current personnel are proudly included. This publication is made possible by the dedicated vision of Columbus Fire Historians, the Central Ohio Fire Museum and the 200th Anniversary Yearbook Committee.
Steven P. Locke is an alumni of The Ohio State University where he did his undergraduate and graduate work. He taught history in the Granville, Ohio Exempted School District. He was Curator of History at the Ohio Historical Society.
Anya Liftig is a performance artist and writer. Her first book, a memoir titled Holler Rat, was published by Abrams Press in August 2023. Called “a searing debut” by Publishers Weekly and cited by Jo Ann Beard as a new influence in her writing, Holler Rat has become a USA Today best seller.
Her experimental film and video work has been screened in festivals in Canada, Greece, UK, Holland, France, and her essays have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and noted in Best American Non-Fiction.
Andrew King is an award-winning journalist who has experience in local news, sports reporting, copywriting and more. He has written for publications including The Athletic, The Columbus Dispatch, Major League Soccer and Columbus Monthly.
Dayna Jalkanen is a proud Buckeye who was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended The Ohio State University, where she earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Art Education. Her career path surprised her by leading her to museums rather than a classroom, and she has spent more than 17 years working in the field of museum education, including eight years as the Deputy Director of Museum and Education at the Ohio Statehouse.
She is the author of the book The Art and Artistry of the Ohio Statehouse, which gave her the opportunity to write about two of her passions: art and history.
Highlighting the rich tapestry of Columbus’ firefighting history, the 200th Anniversary History Book presents the most comprehensive historical collection since the organization’s inception in 1822. The 352-page book begins with a detailed accounting of the history of the CFD from 1822 to the present, highlighted with photographs to help tell the department’s story. Nearly 1600 individual photos of current personnel are proudly included. This publication is made possible by the dedicated vision of Columbus Fire Historians, the Central Ohio Fire Museum and the 200th Anniversary Yearbook Committee.
Rob Harvilla is the host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s and a senior staff writer at The Ringer; he’s been a professional rock critic for 20-plus years with stops at the Village Voice, SPIN, Deadspin, and various other alt-weeklies that generally no longer exist. (Not his fault.) He lives with his family in Columbus, Ohio, by choice.
David Goodrich is a retired climate scientist who served as the Director of the UN Global Climate Observing System in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the author of A Hole in the Wind: A Climate Scientist’s Bicycle Journey Across the United States.
In addition to his cross-country trip, he has ridden down the Appalachians and across Montana, South Dakota, Texas, France and Spain.
Ben Ferree is the former assistant director of officiating and sport management at the Ohio High School Athletic Association who now works as a civil rights investigator for the Ohio State University. He is a tenacious researcher, radio broadcaster and former sports journalist.
Tom Ewing was the guitarist/lead singer of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys for ten years. He is the editor of The Bill Monroe Reader and wrote the “Thirty Years Ago This Month” column for Bluegrass Unlimited.
A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin served as the non-profits’ first Executive Director. He went on to write for network and cable television before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over 600 venues in sixteen countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appetit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Emancipator/Boston Globe.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and more. His essay in Bon Appetit was selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023.
Joyce Dyer has lived in Summit and Portage counties nearly all her life, and her work is often tightly connected to the history and people of Northeast Ohio. She’s authored books about her mother and Alzheimer’s disease (In a Tangled Wood), the Akron rubber industry and the company town where she was raised (Gum-Dipped), an immigrant community in Akron (Goosetown), and her “neighbor” John Brown (Pursuing John Brown). She’s edited or co-edited two collections and published essays in magazines and newspapers including the New York Times and North American Review, as well as numerous anthologies.
Dyer has taught English and writing at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson and at Hiram College–where she was first director of the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature.
Renee Casteel Cook is a Columbus-based author of culinary history and travel titles, including The Columbus Food Truck Cookbook and Ohio Ice Cream: A Scoop of History. Her passion for writing and chocolate are equally matched, making this book a labor of nothing but love. Her hope is to inspire future creators of all types to take the leap toward what they love.
Dick Burry has been a photographer most of his life. After retiring from the Department of Neuroscience in the College of Medicine at Ohio State Univeristy, he devoted his time to photography of buildings for many preservation organizations. He has exhibited in many galleries and has three photos on permanent exhibit at the Ohio Statehouse.
Steve Basford is a statistician for Ohio State home football games, a play-by-play sportscaster for Ohio Wesleyan University and Dublin Jerome High School sports, and the author of three books on sports. His sports production jobs have taken him to Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
Growing up in bluegrass, Fred Bartenstein had the privilege of knowing and working with virtually all of the music’s first generations. The editor of Muleskinner News from 1969-1974, he has also been a broadcaster, musician, festival MC and talent director, founder of a regional association, scholar, educator, and a lifelong fan.
In his professional life, Fred has been a manager and consultant for nonprofits, government and business. He was named a Distinguished Achievement Award recipient by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2006 and is currently the chair/president of the IBMA Foundation.
Kerry Winfrey is the author of the romantic comedies Waiting For Tom Hanks , Not Like the Movies, Very Sincerely Yours, Just Another Love Song, and Faking Christmas, all published by Berkley. She’s also the author of two YA novels. Kerry lives with her family in the middle of Ohio.
Douglas Westerbeke is a librarian who lives in Ohio and works at one of the largest libraries in the United States. He has spent the last decade on the local panel of the International Dublin Literary Award, which inspired him to write his own book.
María Alejandra Barrios Vélez is a writer born in Barranquilla, Colombia. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of Manchester and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and scruffy dog, Gus.
The Waves Take You Home is her first novel.
mariaalejandrabarriosvelez.com
Julia was that GenX kid who rode her bike to the library or bookstore and spent all day there. On the way home she drank out of people’s garden hoses when she was thirsty. Now her life looks nothing like that but she still love books and libraries. Julia remains largely unsupervised and gets paid to make up stuff.
Joseph Earl Thomas is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, The Offing, and The Kenyon Review. He has an MFA in prose from The University of Notre Dame and is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania.
An excerpt of his memoir, Sink, won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize and he has received fellowships from Fulbright, VONA, Tin House, and Bread Loaf. He is writing a collection of stories, Leviathan Beach, among other oddities.
Sarah Sundin is the bestselling author of When Twilight Breaks, Until Leaves Fall in Paris, The Sound of Light, and the popular WWII series Sunrise at Normandy, among others. She is a Christy Award winner and a Carol Award winner, and her novels have received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, and have appeared on Booklist’s “101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years.” Sarah lives in California.
Jessica Strawser is editor-at-large for Writer’s Digest, where she served as editorial director for nearly a decade, and the author of six popular book club novels: Almost Missed You; the Book of the Month selection Not That I Could Tell; Forget You Know Me; A Million Reasons Why; the People magazine pick The Next Thing You Know; and her latest, The Last Caretaker, which was an Amazon Editors’ First Reads pick in November 2023.
She lives with her husband and children in Cincinnati, where she was named 2019 Writer-in-Residence for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Amy Spalding is the author of several novels, including the bestselling For Her Consideration, We Used to Be Friends, and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), which was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, The Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, and more. She is a recipient of the 2023 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award for the authentic, funny, and diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community in her books.
Toni Shiloh is a wife, a mom, and an award-winning Christian contemporary romance author. Her novel In Search of a Prince won the first-ever Christy Amplify Award. It has also been praised by Oprah Daily, POPSUGAR, Library Journal, and Booklist, and is a Parable bestseller. Her books have won the Selah Award and have been finalists for the Carol Award and the HOLT Medallion.
As a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Toni loves connecting with readers and authors alike via social media.
John Scalzi is one of the most popular sci-fi authors of his generation. His debut, Old Man’s War, won him the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, Redshirts (which won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel), The Last Emperox, and 2022’s The Kaiju Preservation Society. Material from his blog, Whatever, has earned him two other Hugo Awards.
He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.
Alexandra Rowland is the author of fantasy books including A Taste of Gold and Iron, A Conspiracy Of Truths, and Some by Virtue Fall, as well as a four-time Hugo Award-nominated podcaster. They have a degree in world literature, mythology, and folklore, and all their work is supervised by their feline quality control manager.
Ali Rosen is a writer of both cookbooks and novels and is the Emmy and James Beard Award-nominated host of “Potluck with Ali Rosen” on NYC Life. Her first novel is Recipe for Second Chances (2023). She has been featured on NBC’s Today Show and Food Network Kitchen and has written for publications including Bon Appetit, The Washington Post and New York Magazine.
Ali is originally from Charleston, SC but now lives in New York City with her husband and three kids and can usually be found cooking in her kitchen or curled up in a chair reading a romance novel.
Andromeda Romano-Lax worked as a freelance journalist and travel writer before turning to fiction. Her first novel, The Spanish Bow, was translated into eleven languages and was chosen as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, BookSense pick, and one of Library Journal’s Best Books of the Year. Her next novels, The Detour (2012), Behave(2016) and Plum Rains (2018) have covered subjects from classical art, to the early years of psychology, to artificial intelligence, aging and relationships in the near future. The Deepest Lake (2024) is her first thriller.
Vanessa Riley is an award-winning author of historical romance, mystery, and fiction novels featuring realistic multicultural communities and powerful persons of color. To fuel her interest in the Regency and early-Victorian eras, she made time for attending renaissance fairs and consuming period novels and films while obtaining her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and a master’s in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University, as well as a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University.
Chris Panatier lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, daughter, and a fluctuating herd of animals resembling dogs (one is almost certainly a goat). He writes short stories and novels, draws album covers for metal bands, and occasionally practices law.
Wanda Morris is the award-winning author of All Her Little Secrets, which has been praised by Karin Slaughter as “brilliantly nuanced” and reviewed by The Boston Globe, LA Times, New York Times, among others.
Her second novel, Anywhere You Run, won the Anthony award for Best Historical Novel of 2023 and was longlisted for the prestigious Mark Twain Voice in American Literature Prize. She is married, the mother of three, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Melissa Mogollon holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA from the George Washington University. Originally from Colombia and raised in Florida, she now teaches at a boarding school in Rhode Island, where she lives with her partner and dog. Oye is her first novel.
Sujata Massey was born in England to parents from India and Germany, grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She was a features reporter for the Baltimore Evening Sun before becoming a full-time novelist. The first Perveen Mistry novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill, was an international bestseller and won the Agatha, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards.
Christine Ma-Kellams is a Harvard-trained cultural psychologist and writer whose fiction and essays have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Saturday Evening Post, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today and elsewhere.
Two of her short stories were also nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her empirical studies on culture and relationships have also been widely covered in GQ (Australia), Esquire (Middle East), Boston Globe, Vice News, Elle Magazine (UK), Yahoo News and more.
Meredith grew up in New Orleans, collecting two degrees from Louisiana State University before running away to Chicago to be an actor. She fought in the Chicago Golden Gloves, ran the Chicago Marathon, and competed for team U.S.A. in the savate world championships in Paris. In spite of doing each of these things twice, she couldn’t stay warm and relocated to Nashville.
She owns several swords, but lives a non-violent life, saving all swashbuckling for the page, knitting scarves, gardening, visiting coffee shops, and cuddling with her husband and two panther-sized cats. Ghost Tamer is her first novel.
Tracey is the 2021 Emma Award winner for Best Interracial Romance for Like Lovers Do, which was also was named one of the 100 Best Fiction Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews. A former criminal defense attorney, she lives in Virginia with her husband—who she met on the very first day of law school—and is counting down the days until they have an empty nest. (Don’t worry, their three kids are well aware.)
Ananda Lima is the author of the poetry collection Mother/land, winner of the Hudson Prize. Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poets.org, Kenyon Review Online, Gulf Coast, Witness, and elsewhere. She has an MA in Linguistics from UCLA and an MFA in Creative Writing in Fiction from Rutgers University, Newark.
Craft: Stories I wrote for the Devil is her fiction debut.
Yume Kitasei is the author of The Deep Sky. She is half Japanese and half American and grew up in a space between two cultures—the same space where her stories reside. She lives in Brooklyn with two cats, Boondoggle and Filibuster.
Her stories have appeared in publications including New England Review, Catapult, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Baltimore Review. The Stardust Grail is her second novel.
Libby Kay lives in Columbus with her husband. When she’s not writing, Libby loves reading romance novels of any kind. Stories of people falling in love nourish her soul. Contemporary or Regency, sweet or hot, as long as there is a happily ever after—she’s in love! When not surrounded by books, Libby can be found baking in her kitchen, binging true crime shows, or on the road with her husband, traveling as far as their bank account will allow.
Libby cohosts the Romance Roundup podcast with Liz Donatelli. Together they share their favorite romance books, authors, and tropes, as well as interview fellow romance authors and readers.
Linda Kass is the author of three historical novels: Tasa’s Song (2016); A Ritchie Boy (2020), an IPPY Gold Medal Winner in Historical Fiction in 2021; and Bessie, which was named A Hasty Book List Most-Anticipated Historical Fiction Title for 2023.
Linda began her career as a magazine journalist and correspondent for regional and national publications. She is the founder and owner of Gramercy Books, an independent bookstore in Columbus, Ohio.
Stephen Mack Jones is a published poet, award-winning playwright and winner of the Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellowship. Stephen has received many accolades for his August Snow crime/thriller series, which won the Nero Award, and he has been shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and a finalist for the Shamus Award as well as the Strand Critics Award.
In 2018, the International Association of Crime Writers presented Stephen with the prestigious Hammett Prize for literary excellence in the field of crime writing. He currently lives in the suburbs of Detroit.
Lauren Kung Jessen is a mixed-race Chinese-American writer with a fondness for witty, flirtatious dialogue and making meals with too many steps but lots of flavor. She is fascinated by myths and superstitions and how ideas, beliefs, traditions, and stories evolve over time. From attending culinary school to working in the world of Big Tech to writing love stories, Lauren cares about creating experiences that make people feel something.
When she’s not writing novels, she works as a content strategist and user experience writer. She also has a food and film blog, A Dash of Cinema, where she makes food inspired by movies and TV shows. She lives in Nashville with her husband (who she met thanks to fate—read: the algorithms of online dating), two cats, and dog.
Miesha Wilson Headen is the winner of a Best Minority Issues Reporting Award from the Greater Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists, aand a BINC Carla Gray Memorial Scholarship for Emerging Bookseller-Activists. She is the former mayor of Richmond Heights, OH, where she lives with her husband and two sons. She graduated from Columbia University and Ursuline College. She is also a preacher’s kid. Her latest work is as an editor of Cleveland Noir.
Anastasia Hastings is the author of the Dear Miss Hermione historical mystery series. In a review of the first book of the series, Of Manners and Murder, the Wall Street Journal says, “The book’s thrilling denouement evokes the shocking revelations of Wilkie Collins, the social acuity of Jane Austen and the comic melodrama of Oscar Wilde.” The second book of the series, Of Hoaxes and Homicide, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.
Anastasia lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, David, and her two dogs. When she’s not planning murders, she enjoys exploring old cemeteries and digging into family genealogy.
Sarah Gailey is a Hugo Award winning and bestselling author of speculative fiction, short stories, and essays. Their nonfiction has been published by dozens of venues internationally. Their fiction has been published in over seven different languages.
Their most recent novel, Just Like Home, and most recent original comic book series with BOOM! Studios, Know Your Station are available now.
Jess Everlee writes decadent romance from the Northeast Ohio split-level she shares with her small family of furballs and fellow humans. She holds a B.A. from The Ohio State University, where she studied English and Gender Studies, focusing on Victorian Literature and public health topics. While that background resulted in an eclectic resume, her passion for reading and writing has never wavered.
Alex Erickson has always wanted to write, even at a young, impressionable age. He’s always had an interest in the motive behind murder, which has led him down his current path. He’s always ready with a witty—at least in his opinion—quip, and tries to keep every conversation light and friendly.
Alex lives in Ohio with his family and resident felines, who provide endless amounts of inspiration.
Mazey Eddings is a neurodiverse author, dentist, and (most importantly) stage mom to her cats, Yaya and Zadie. She can most often be found reading romance novels under her weighted blanket and asking her fiancé to bring her snacks. She’s made it her personal mission in life to destigmatize mental health issues and write love stories for every brain.
With roots in Ohio and Philadelphia, she now calls Asheville, North Carolina home. She is the author of A Brush with Love and Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake.
Amanda Dykes’s debut novel, Whose Waves These Are, is the winner of the prestigious 2020 Christy Award Book of the Year, a Booklist 2019 Top Ten Romance debut, and the winner of an INSPY Award. She’s also the author of All the Lost Places and Christy Award finalists Yours Is the Night and Set the Stars Alight.
Jason B. Dutton is a Columbus-based author, where he does all he can to nurture his lifelong love of song, dance, and books. When he’s not writing, Jason loves to watch and passionately discuss movies, particularly anything involving Spider-Man. He can often be found singing, whether bystanders want him to or not, and as a writer with cerebral palsy, he delights in finding the humor, beauty, and possibility in life with a disability.
Phyllis R. Dixon is the acclaimed author of Intermission, Forty Acres, and Down Home Blues, which was shortlisted for the Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List by the Texas Library Association. She also is a contributor to the New Tri-State Defender book review column and to Chicken Soup for the African American Woman’s Soul.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she is a former independent bookstore owner, previously worked for the U.S. Treasury Department, and serves on several nonprofit boards. She currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee.
Bestselling author and journalist, Terreece M. Clarke, writes love stories about courageous Black women, in extraordinary circumstances, who are loved completely and unapologetically. Her debut novel, Heartbeat: A Courageous Love Novel, is an international bestseller in two categories.
Ryan Chapman is a Sri Lankan–American writer originally from Minnesota, and currently based in Kingston, New York. He is the author of Riots I Have Known, which NPR named “one of the smartest—and best—novels of the year,” among other accolades. His criticism and humor pieces have appeared in Bookforum, The New Yorker, The Guardian, McSweeney’s and elsewhere.
The Audacity
Mark Cecil is host of The Thoughtful Bro show, for which he conducts interviews with an eclectic roster of award-winning and breakout storytellers. Formerly a journalist for Reuters, he is Head of Strategy for literary social media startup, A Mighty Blaze, and has taught writing at Grub Street in Boston. This is his first book.
Bunyan and Henry; Or, the Beautiful Destiny
Christopher Buehlman is an author, comedian, and screenwriter from St. Petersburg, Florida, whose books include The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters’ War. He tours the country most years, writing fantasy and horror and performing at Renaissance festivals. He and his wife, Jenn, travel with their rescue dog, Duck, and a black cat named Jane Mansfield, who is proficient in ninjutsu.
The Daughters’ War
Born in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times bestselling and World Fantasy Award-winning author. His novels and almost 100 stories have been translated into 19 different languages. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, and Astounding Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Ohio.
The Runes of Engagement
Neely Tubati Alexander is originally from the Seattle area and currently resides in Arizona with her husband and two elementary-aged children. If she’s not tucked away writing, you can find her at some kiddo activity, drinking wine, or watching reality television, usually the last two together. She is also the author of Love Buzz.
Denny S. Bryce is an award-winning, best-selling author of historical fiction. A former professional dancer and public relations professional, Denny is an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Drexel University, a book critic for NPR, and a freelance writer whose work has been published in USA Today, Harper’s Bazaar, and FROLIC Media. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Tall Poppy Writers. Originally from Chicago, she now resides in Savannah, Georgia.
Alisa Alering, author of the debut novel Smothermoss, grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and now lives in Arizona. Their short fiction has been published in Fireside, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Podcastle, and Cast of Wonders, among others, and been recognized by the Calvino Prize. A former librarian and science/technology reporter, they teach fiction workshops at the Highlights Foundation.
Author Can No Longer Attend
Khadijah L. VanBrakle is a Muslim woman of color living with her family in the southwestern US. As someone born and raised in Canada to American parents, she writes to ensure teens who share her Black & American Muslim dual marginalization see themselves on the printed page. She was chosen as one of the recipients of a two-year, 2021 Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Fellowship.
Author Can No Longer Attend
C.L. Clark (they/she) is a BFA award-winning editor and Ignyte award winning-writer, and the author of Nebula-nominated novel The Unbroken, the first book in the Magic of the Lost trilogy. She graduated from Indiana University’s creative writing MFA and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Fellow. She’s been a personal trainer, an English teacher, and an editor, and is some combination thereof as she travels the world. When she’s not writing or working, she’s learning languages, doing P90something, or reading about war and [post-]colonial history. Her work has appeared in various SFF venues, including Tor.com, Uncanny, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
Author Can No Longer Attend
Vanessa A. Bee is a consumer protection lawyer and essayist. Born in Cameroon, she grew up in France, England, and the United States. Vanessa holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada and a law degree from Harvard. She lives in Washington, DC.
Her experimental memoir, HOME BOUND: An Uprooted Daughter’s Reflections on Belonging, was published via Astra House in Fall 2022.
Lisa McMann splits her time between Tempe, AZ, Sacramento, CA, and Vancouver, BC. She is married to fellow children’s author, Matt McMann, and they have two adult children. Her son is artist Kilian McMann and her daughter is actor Kennedy McMann.
Lisa was born in Holland, Michigan, and she lived there until 2004, when she moved to Arizona with her family. Her first book, Wake, came out in 2008.
In her spare time, Lisa likes to take walks along Tempe Town Lake and on the Arizona State University campus, shop at local stores, and cook. She also enjoys watching TV and movies, and loves to read fantasy, realistic fiction, memoirs, and books about cooking.
Lisa is the author of over two dozen books for young adults and children. Some of her most well-known books are The Unwanteds series for middle grade readers and the Wake trilogy for young adults. She hopes to keep writing books for a long time.
Author Can No Longer Attend
Lynette Eason is the USA Today bestselling author of Life Flight and Crossfire, as well as the Danger Never Sleeps, Blue Justice, Women of Justice, Deadly Reunions, Hidden Identity, and Elite Guardians series. She is the winner of three ACFW Carol Awards, the Selah Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award, among others. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and has a master’s degree in education from Converse College. Eason lives in South Carolina with her husband and two children.
Author Can No Longer Attend
Mary Robinette Kowal is the four-time Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Award winning author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, the Lady Astronaut Universe, and The Spare Man. She is a cast member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Uncanny, and Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi. She lives in Nashville with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters.
Natalie D. Richards writes books that will keep you up way past your bedtime. A champion of literacy and aspiring authors, Richards is a frequent speaker at schools, libraries, and writing groups. In addition to writing, she spends her days working at a local public library. Richards lives with her wonderful family in Columbus, Ohio. When she’s not writing or reading, you can probably find her wrangling Wookiee, her enormous dustmop of a dog.
B.L. Blanchard is an author, a mother, and an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a federally-recognized tribe. She graduated from UC Davis’s inaugural undergraduate Creative Writing Honors Program in 2006 and was a Writing Fellow at Boston University School of Law. B.L. Blanchard is originally from Sault St. Marie in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and now lives in California with her family. She can stare at maps all day and is always looking for new podcasts and shows about true crime.
Mary A. Turzillo won a Nebula award (“Mars Is No Place for Children” 1999) and two Elgin awards (Sweet Poison, with Marge Simon, 2014, and Lovers & Killers, 2012, solo).
Her novel Mars Girls (Apex) features two young Martian women rescuing themselves from Face-on-Mars crazies. Her purrfectly delicious story collection Cosmic Cats & Fantastic Furballs appeared March 2022 from WordFire. As the 11th rated woman épée fencer in the US in her age class, she lives with scientist-author-fencer Geoffrey Landi.
Jeff Chenault is an author, producer, music historian, and exotica DJ. He has written for various publications including Cool and Strange Music Magazine Tiki News, Bachelor Pad Magazine, and Tiki Magazine.
In addition to his first book on the Kahiki Supper Club, a famous Polynesian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, he has published its companion, The Kahiki Scrapbook, with co-authors David Meyers, Elise Meyers Walker and Doug Motz.
Susan Azim Boyer writes young adult and women’s fiction featuring Iranian American heroines (whom she *never* encountered growing up), who make messy, complicated choices that rapidly snowball into avalanches. JASMINE ZUMIDEH NEEDS A WIN is out now; her second young adult book, THE SEARCH FOR US, is coming on 10.24.23. She is working on what will be her adult debut.
She lives in the Palm Springs/Palm Desert area with her husband, Wayne, and her sweet rescue pup, Jasper. Her son, Alec, lives in New York.
Robyn Gigl, the author of the Erin McCabe legal thrillers, is an attorney, speaker and activist who has been honored by the ACLU-NJ and the NJ Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ community. Appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to the Court’s Committee on Diversity Inclusion and Community Engagement, she’s practiced law for more than 40 years, representing clients in state and federal courts. She is active in the New Jersey State Bar Association where she is a member of the Women in the Profession Section and a Past Chair of the Bar’s LGBT Rights Section. She also is a member of the Board of Directors of Garden State Equality, NJ’s largest LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Organization. She lives in New Jersey and is a frequent lecturer on diversity issues.
Tom Betti is dedicated to bringing history to life through entertaining story telling. He co-led various local history tours for over a decade, where he brought dry humor and wit. He served on the board of Columbus Landmarks Foundation for two full terms and chaired the Education Committee charged with leading the organization’s educational tours and extensive programming. Tom was lead researcher on the National Register of Historic Places nominations for both the Hartman Hotel Building and the Athletic Club of Columbus.
Tom has coauthored many books with Doreen Uhas-Sauer on local Columbus history available through The History Press. He serves on the board of the Pan Am Museum Foundation and host the Pan Am Podcast. A native of the Cleveland, Ohio area, it is fitting that his condo resides in the historic 1898 Hartman Hotel Building in Columbus, Ohio with his pug, Roosevelt.
Doreen Uhas-Sauer is a past president of Columbus Landmarks Foundation and a current trustee of Green Lawn Cemetery Association. She has served on Columbus’s Historic Resource Commission, is currently involved with the Christopher Columbus Statue Committee, and was recently reappointed to the Ohio Historic Site Preservation Board by the governor as a public historian. Doreen is also a prolific author on Columbus history topics and you can check out many of her books through the library.
Jenna Miller (she/her) writes Young Adult books about fat, queer, nerdy girls who deserve to be seen and have their voices heard. When she’s not obsessing over words, she can be found making charcuterie boards, befriending people online, cross stitching, or adventuring in the Minneapolis area.
Mar Romasco-Moore (she/they) is the YA author of I Am the Ghost in Your House and Some Kind of Animal, as well as Ghostographs, a collection of short stories paired with vintage photographs. Krazyland is her middle-grade debut. She is also an instructor at Columbus College of Art and Design.
Matthew Caracciolo is the author of Moon Ohio and The Waygook Book: A Foreigner’s Guide to South Korea. As a travel writer, his work has appeared on Amateur Traveler, Only In Your State, Columbus Navigator, Columbus: A Book Project, and his blog “Travel is Fatal.” He’s currently a Tour Researcher and Writer with Shaka Guide and lives in the Columbus area with his family.
Courtney Kae (they/she) writes the sweet and steamy happily ever afters that give her queer little heart great joy. She lives in Southern California with her husband, child, and growing hoard of plants. Some of her favorite things include: movie nights, mountain air, and pretending she doesn’t have a coffee “problem”. Courtney’s debut novel, In The Event Of Love, released on August 30, 2022 with Kensington and Headline Eternal, and the sequel, In The Case Of Heartbreak, will follow on July 25, 2023.
Lydia Conklin (they/them) has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, three Pushcart Prizes, a Creative Writing Fulbright in Poland, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a Creative Writing Fellowship from Emory University, work-study and tuition scholarships from Bread Loaf, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, the James Merrill House, and elsewhere. Their fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, The Paris Review, One Story, and VQR. They have drawn cartoons for The New Yorker and Narrative Magazine, and graphic fiction for The Believer, Lenny Letter, and the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. Last year they served as the Helen Zell Visiting Professor in Fiction at the University of Michigan and they are currently an Assistant Professor of Fiction at Vanderbilt University. Their story collection, Rainbow Rainbow, was published by Catapult in North America and Scribner in the UK.
Phil Stamper is the bestselling author of The Gravity of Us, As Far as You’ll Take Me, Golden Boys, and other queer books for kids and teens. He currently works in author development for a major book publisher in New York City, where he lives with his husband and their dog. Small Town Pride is his debut middle grade novel.
Kate Fussner (she/her) is a novelist, teacher, and accidental poet living in Massachusetts with her wife and dramatic dog. When not reading or writing, Kate can be found spending time with her family, baking, or singing her favorite musicals. Kate believes in the power of a good laugh and a good cry, and hopes her stories will provide readers with both.
James Bird’s debut middle-grade novel, The Brave, was a Book Riot Best Book of 2020. He is also a screenwriter and director at the independent film company, Zombot Pictures; his films include We Are Boats and Honeyglue. Originally from California, James Bird is of Ojibwe descent, and now lives in Massachusetts with his wife, the author and actor Adriana Mather, and their son.
M. Elizabeth Weiser is a professor of rhetoric and museology at The Ohio State University, specializing in public memory and national narratives. She is the author of Museum Rhetoric: Building Civic Identity in National Spaces and other books.
The Fertile Earth and The Ordered Cosmos, published by Ohio State Press, was edited by M. Elizabeth Weiser, Timothy R. W. Jordan, and Richard D. Shiels.
Ric S. Sheffield has researched, taught, and lectured extensively about rural diversity in general, and the Black experience in small town America in particular. As co-director (with Prof. Howard Sacks, Kenyon College) of the award-winning Community Within: Black Experience in Knox County, Ohio project and co-director (with Prof. Brooke Bryan, Antioch College) of the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s (GLCA) Oral History in the Liberal Arts (OHLA) program, he has designed and executed projects intended to explore minority communities in small town America. He also offers workshops on exploring diversity in rural geographies and cultural contexts.
Negesti Kaudo is a Midwestern essayist who holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia College Chicago and has worked as a copywriter, a sex toy columnist, and an adjunct writing instructor. She is the youngest recipient of the Ohioana Library Association’s Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant for unpublished writers under 30. Her work has appeared in Fourth Genre, Best American Experimental Writing, Seneca Review, and elsewhere. Ripe is her first book.
Conrade C. Hinds (born 1953) is a registered architect in Ohio and New York and a retired Project Manager for the City of Columbus, Dublin Road Water Plant. He is a graduate of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana where he studied architecture and industrial technology and has taught as an adjunct faculty member in the Engineering Technology Dept. at Columbus State Community College for 25 years. Originally from Nashville, Tenn., he has lived in Central Ohio for 46 years. As a licensed auctioneer, he likes to give back to the community by donating his services to a variety of charitable fund-raising events. In addition to being a 50-year veteran and teacher of the yodeling arts, he is also a storyteller with a special focus on forgotten history. To help bring a story to life he will often incorporate the use of puppets and marionettes in his presentations. Mr. Hinds also serves on the board of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation.
Suzanne Gordon is Senior Policy Analyst at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute and the author of many books, most recently, Wounds of War: How the VA Delivers Health, Healing, and Hope to the Nation’s Veterans.
Ruth P. Watson is the author of Blackberry Days of Summer, An Elderberry Fall, Cranberry Winter, and Strawberry Spring. A musical stage play, Blackberry Daze, is based on her debut novel. She is the recipient of the Caversham Fellowship, an artist and writer’s residency in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where she published her first children’s book in Zulu, Our Secret Bond. She is a freelance writer and member of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and has written for Upscale, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other publications. She is an adjunct professor and project manager, who lives with family in Atlanta, Georgia.
Thao Thai is a writer living in Ohio with her husband and daughter. Her work engages with tangled family relationships and the intersections of motherhood and identity. She’s been published in Cup of Jo, Eater, Catapult, Sunday Long Read, and more. A recipient of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, she has also been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes and earned fellowships in creative writing. She received her MFA from The Ohio State University and her MA from The University of Chicago.
Rasheed Newson is a writer and producer of Bel-Air, The Chi, and Narcos. He currently resides in Pasadena, California with his husband and two children. My Government Means to Kill Me is his debut novel.
Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced, coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young, gay, Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.
Shelley Shepard Gray is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 100 books. Two-time winner of the HOLT Medallion and a Carol Award finalist, Gray lives in Colorado, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.
Ariel Delgado Dixon was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey. Her short stories have appeared in Kenyon Review, The Mississippi Review, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. She received her MFA from Boise State University and currently lives in Philadelphia.
Wesley Chu is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the author of The Art of Prophecy, Time Salvager, The Rise of Io, and The Walking Dead: Typhoon. He won the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. His debut, The Lives of Tao, won the Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award. Chu is an accomplished martial artist and a former member of the Screen Actors Guild. He has acted in film and television, worked as a model and stuntman, and summited Kilimanjaro. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Paula, and two boys, Hunter and River.
Julie Anne Lindsey is an award-winning and bestselling author of mystery and romantic suspense. She’s published more than fifty novels since her debut in 2013 and currently writes series as herself, as well as under multiple pen names, for Harlequin, Kensington, Sourcebooks and Crooked Lane Books. When Julie’s not creating new worlds or fostering the epic love of fictional characters, she can be found in Kent, Ohio, enjoying her blessed Midwestern life. And probably plotting murder with her shamelessly enabling friends.
Julie Anne writes under the pseudonyms Bree Baker (Seaside Café Mysteries), Jacqueline Frost (Christmas Tree Farm Mysteries), and Julie Chase (Kitty Couture Mysteries).
Rajani LaRocca, MD, was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area with her wonderful family and impossibly cute dog. She earned a BA and an MD from Harvard and spends her time writing novels and picture books, practicing medicine, and baking too many sweet treats.
Hailed by readers and booksellers alike as one of today’s most prolific and popular African American authors of romance and women’s fiction, Rochelle Alers is a highly-sought public speaker and writer. Her stories of charming, small-town contemporaries often deal with women’s issues and female bonding with a focus on diversity. Along the Shore is the latest novel in her multicultural, heartfelt Book Club series.
Erin Bartels is the award-winning author of We Hope for Better Things, The Words between Us, All That We Carried, and The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water. A two-time Christy finalist and winner of two 2020 WFWA Star Awards and the 2020 Michigan Notable Book Award, Erin has been a publishing professional for twenty years. She lives in Lansing, Michigan, with her husband, Zachary, and their son.
Lynn H. Blackburn is the award-winning author of Unknown Threat and Malicious Intent, as well as the Dive Team Investigations series. She believes in the power of stories, especially those that remind us that true love exists, a gift from the Truest Love. Blackburn is passionate about CrossFit, coffee, and chocolate (don’t make her choose) and experimenting with recipes that feed both body and soul. She lives in Simpsonville, South Carolina, with her true love, Brian, and their three children.
Lucy Jane Bledsoe is the author of several works of fiction, including A Thin Bright Line, which was a Lambda Literary Award and Ferro-Grumley Award finalist. She is the winner of an American Library Association Stonewall Award, a Yaddo Fellowship, a California Arts Council Fellowship in Literature, two National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Fellowships, and a finalist for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Award. A native of Portland, Oregon, she now lives in Berkeley, California.
Francesca Lia Block is the bestselling author of more than twenty-five widely-translated books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and she has also written various essays, reviews and screenplay adaptations of her work. She has received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as praise from the New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, LA Times, and Publisher’s Weekly, among others.
Sara Brunsvold creates stories that speak hope, truth, and life. Influenced by humble women of God who find his fingerprints in the everyday, she does the same in her life and her storytelling. Sara’s recognitions include the 2020 ACFW Genesis Award for Contemporary Fiction. She lives with her family in Kansas City, Missouri, where she can often be spotted writing at a park or library.
Tara Conklin is a writer and former lawyer whose first novel, The House Girl, was a New York Times bestseller, #1 IndieNext pick, Target book club pick and has been translated into 8 languages. Her second novel, The Last Romantics, was published in February 2019 to wide acclaim.
Before turning to fiction, Tara worked for an international human rights organization and at corporate law firms in London and New York. She was born in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands and grew up in western Massachusetts. She holds a BA in history from Yale University, a JD from NYU School of Law and a Master of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Tara now lives in Seattle with her family where she writes, teaches at Hugo House and works with private clients on manuscript development.
Jen Devon wrote her first romance when she was eight. Now she writes vivid, cinematic love stories about imperfect people finding their perfect match. A former biology academic and lecturer, she currently works in the tech industry and dreams of writing full-time. She’s an avid gardener, photographer, and boardgamer, a thrift store enthusiast and unapologetic nerd. She’s a mom of six (three kids, three rescue mutts) and lives in central Ohio with her engineer husband.
J.R. Dawson (she/they) has published shorter works in places such as F&SF, Lightspeed, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Omaha with her spouse and three dogs in the middle of a city park. Having earned a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast, Dawson works at Nebraska Writers Collective and other Midwestern nonprofits that teach kids the power of performance and storytelling. The First Bright Thing is her first novel.
Kimberly Duffy is a Long Island native currently living in southwest Ohio. When she’s not homeschooling her four kids, she writes historical fiction that takes her readers back in time and across oceans. She loves trips that require a passport, recipe books, and practicing kissing scenes with her husband of twenty-three years. He doesn’t mind.
Grace Ellis is a New York Times bestselling, Eisner and GLADD Media Award-winning author. She is best known for co-writing and co-creating Lumberjanes and is also the author and creator of the Image Comics series Moonstruck, writer of Lois Lane and the Friendship Challenge and Batwoman: Truth and Justice for DC Comics. Flung Out of Space is her first graphic novel for adults.
Tori Eldridge is the IndieBound bestselling author of the Lily Wong mystery thriller series, winner of the 2021 Crimson Scribe Award for Best Book of the Year. Her shorter works appear in the inaugural reboot of Weird Tales Magazine and horror, dystopian, and other literary anthologies. Her horror screenplay The Gift earned a semi-finalist spot for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship.
Before writing, Tori performed as an actress, singer, dancer on Broadway, television, and film, and earned a 5th degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninja martial arts. She is of Hawaiian, Chinese, Norwegian descent and was born and raised in Honolulu where she graduated from Punahou School with classmate Barack Obama. Tori’s deep interest in world culture and religions has prompted her to visit nine countries, including Brazil.
Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over forty-five mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she had been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. She currently writes for Penguin-Random House (Berkley), Kensington, and Sourcebooks. In addition to being a writer, she was a librarian for fifteen years. Today, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their adorable cats.
Claudia Gray is the pseudonym of Amy Vincent. She is the writer of multiple young adult novels, including the Evernight series, the Firebird trilogy and the Constellation trilogy. In addition, she’s written several Star Wars novels, such as Lost Stars and Bloodline. Her debut adult historical mystery, The Murder of Mr. Wickham, released in May 2022. She makes her home in New Orleans with her husband Paul and assorted small dogs.
Jocelyn Green inspires faith and courage as the award-winning author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, including The Mark of the King, A Refuge Assured, and The Windy City Saga. Jocelyn lives with her husband and two children in Iowa.
Sara Herchenroether taught American Literature and AP English at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, New York for seven years and another year in New Haven. She holds a Masters’ Degree in Teaching and is a National Board Certified Teacher in Adolescent Young Adult English Language Arts. Sara Herchenroether currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, four young children, one old dog and two cats.
Allegra Hyde is the author of Eleutheria and the story collection Of This New World. A recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, Hyde’s writing has also been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. Her stories, essays, and humor pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, American Short Fiction, BOMB, and many other venues.
Hyde has received fellowships and grants from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, the Lucas Artist Residency Program, the Jentel Foundation, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, and elsewhere.
She currently teaches at Oberlin College.
Nishanth Injam received an MFA from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where he won the Chamberlain Award and the Frederick Busch Prize in Creative Writing. He is the recipient of a PEN/Dau Prize for Best Debut Short Story and the Cecelia Joyce Johnson Emerging Writer Award from the Key West Literary Seminar. His work has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Georgia Review—which won an ASME Award in fiction for its publication of his work—and Catapult’s Best Debut Short Stories 2021.
Rosalie Knecht is the author of Relief Map, Who is Vera Kelly? and Vera Kelly is not a Mystery, an Edgar Award winner and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, as well as Vera Kelly Lost and Found, published June 2022. She is the translator of Cesar Aira’s The Seamstress and the Wind. She lives in Philadelphia, PA.
Joe Medo is a fiction writer and journalist who lives in Chicago. Winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a finalist for the Story Prize, Meno is the best-selling author of several novels and short story collections including Marvel and a Wonder, The Great Perhaps, The Boy Detective Fails, and Hairstyles of the Damned. He is a professor in the English and Creative Writing Department at Columbia College, Chicago.
Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mysteries, set in 1920s Appalachian Ohio and inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff. Under her given name, she writes the “Level Up Your Writing (Life)” column for Writer’s Digest and teaches for Writer’s Digest University. She was formerly a newspaper columnist, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News. She is a three-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council, a two-time recipient of the Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District (MCAD) Artist Opportunity Grant, and has been a John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio).
GennaRose Nethercott is a writer and folklorist. Her first book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, was selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series. Whether authoring novels, poems, ballads, or even fold-up paper cootie catchers, her projects are all rooted in myth—and what our stories reveal about who we are. She tours nationally and internationally performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow) and composing poems-to-order for strangers on an antique typewriter with her team, the Traveling Poetry Emporium. She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery.
Katherine Reay is a national bestselling and award-winning author of several novels, including Dear Mr. Knightley, The Printed Letter Bookshop and The London House. She has enjoyed a lifelong affair with books and brings that love to her stories. Katherine’s has also written one full-length nonfiction work, Awful Beautiful Life. She holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University and currently lives outside Chicago, IL. When not writing, Katherine hosts the “What the Dickens” Book Club on Facebook and weekly chats with authors and booksellers at “The 10 Minute Book Talk” on Instagram. Her work has also been featured in national magazines and online publications.
Lucy A. Snyder is the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated and five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 15 books and over 100 published short stories. Her most recent books are the collection Halloween Season and the forthcoming Tor Nightfire novels Sister, Maiden, Monster and The Star-Stained Soul. She also wrote the novels Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, and Switchblade Goddess, the nonfiction book Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide, and the collections Garden of Eldritch Delights, While the Black Stars Burn, Soft Apocalypses, Orchid Carousals, Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her writing has been translated into French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Czech, and Japanese editions and has appeared in publications such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, and Best Horror of the Year. She lives near Columbus, Ohio.
Lauren Thoman lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, two children, and a rotating number of dogs and fish. Her pop culture writing has appeared in numerous online outlets including Parade, Vulture, and Collider. When she’s not writing, she’s probably on the hunt for tacos or coffee, or buried underneath a pile of dogs.
Mia Tsai is a Taiwanese American author of speculative fiction. She lives in Atlanta with her family and, when not writing, is a hype woman for her orchids and a devoted cat gopher. Her favorite things include music of all kinds (really, truly) and taking long trips with nothing but the open road and a saucy rhythm section. She has been quoted in Glamour once. In her other lives, she is a professional editor, photographer, and musician.
Marie Vibbert is a veteran science fiction writer, with over 80 short stories published to magazines including Nature, Vice, Amazing Stories and Analog. Her work has been translated into Czech, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, made the long list for the British Science Fiction Award in 2021. The Gods Awoke is her third book.
As an amateur genealogist and family historian, Eric Walker was impelled to write his debut novel Lost Souls Recovered when he discovered the richness of family stories. As he read historical documents and talked to relatives, he envisioned a way to bring to life in fiction form many of his ancestors who lived a hardscrabble life and who worked to overcome hardship. He believes the written word can unlock doors as well as the imagination and unite our spirits through our visions. He is working on a second novel involving land loss in the early post-Reconstruction era. He is a lawyer and lives in Ohio.
Laura Warrell is a contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writers’ Workshop, and is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, The Rumpus, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. She has taught creative writing and literature at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and through the Emerging Voices program at PEN America in Los Angeles, where she lives.
Journalist and mystery writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the author of the central Ohio-set crime novel The End of the Road; seven books in the Andy Hayes private eye series, about a former Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback turned investigator, including the Shamus Award-nominated An Empty Grave; and the editor of Columbus Noir, featuring stories by fourteen Columbus area writers set in distinctive city neighborhoods. Andrew’s nonfiction books include No Winners Here Tonight, the definitive history of the death penalty in Ohio, and Hatred at Home, about a post-9/11 federal prosecution of three alleged terrorists in Columbus.
Christy and Carol Award–winning author Jaime Jo Wright has captured audiences with her numerous thrilling and mysterious novels, including The Premonition at Withers Farm, The Souls of Lost Lake, and On the Cliffs of Foxglove Manor. Featuring rich characterization and an intricate plot with just the right amount of spookiness, Wright’s latest stand-alone spotlights the curse of a dilapidated French castle.
Mercedes M. Yardley is a dark fantasist who wears red lipstick and poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of Darling, Beautiful Sorrows, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, and Nameless. She won the Bram Stoker Award for her story Little Dead Red and was a Bram Stoker Award nominee for her short story “Loving You Darkly” and the Arterial Bloom anthology. Mercedes lives and works in Las Vegas.
Bart Yates is the author of six novels, including The Language Of Love and Loss, Leave Myself Behind, The Brothers Bishop, and (writing as Noah Bly) The Third Hill North of Town. He is also a musician, and plays and teaches clarinet, saxophone, and bass guitar. He began teaching private music lessons in Massachusetts in 1989, and then moved to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1999. A novel-writing class taught by Gordon Mennenga at the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival was the catalyst for his first novel (Leave Myself Behind). Bart still lives in Iowa City, with an extremely well-stocked refrigerator and the world’s best cat.
Timothy G. Anderson is an associate professor of geography at Ohio University.
Settling Ohio, co-authored with Brian Schoen, draws from scholars working in archaeology, education, history, geography, and politics to tell a nuanced story about the people and dynamics that reshaped Ohio and determined who would control it.
Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants, and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003, and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her book has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag. Another Appalachia was a finalist for the New England Book Award.
Paul Hlava Ceballos has received fellowships from CantoMundo, Artist Trust, and the Poets House. His work has been published in POETRY, Pleiades, Triquarterly, Poetry Northwest, and BOMB, among other journals and newspapers. His collaborative chapbook, Banana [ ] / we pilot the blood shares pages with Quenton Baker, Dr. Christina Sharpe, and Torkwase Dyson. He received his MFA from New York University and currently lives in Seattle.
Darren C. Demaree is the author of seventeen poetry collections, most recently “clawing at the grounded moon”, (April Gloaming, August 2022). He is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.
Lifelong Franklin County resident Nellie Kampmann works professionally in the field of history. Her love of the subject has led her to volunteer with several Columbus history and historical preservation organizations. She has been a guest historian on Columbus Neighborhoods and The Dead Files. At her day job, her specialty is dealing with death records. While her co-workers have nicknamed her the “Mistress of Death,” she is more of an aging hippie with a gardening addiction. Her previous book, A Haunted History of Columbus, Ohio, reflects her interest in all things spooky.
Wendy Koile has spent most of her life exploring the nooks and crannies of Ohio. When not traveling or writing, Wendy works full-time as the Director of Teaching and Learning at a community college in Ohio. She holds a master’s degree in teaching and one in English. She currently has four books published with The History Press and is working on ideas for the next one.
Elise Meyers Walker earned degrees from Hofstra University and Ohio University. A former board member of the Columbus Historical Society and the Ted Lewis Museum in Circleville, she describes herself as an analyst, researcher, performer, author, organizer, project manager, event planner, teacher, saleswoman, Lego artist, mother, and adventuress. Her particular interest is true crime.
Elise co-authored several books with her father and collaborator, David Meyers.
Tim Raab played football at Marion Harding High School in central Ohio. Playing in the Buckeye Conference against some of the most iconic teams in Ohio high school football history, he learned firsthand what it was that made Ohio the premier state for football. A lifetime student of history, he has visited just about every school and town in Ohio that plays high school football to write this book. He has written numerous articles on technology, management and leadership and authored an action novel titled Friday at Four and numerous articles on ’60s rock-and-roll for www.rebeatmag.com.
James Renner is an investigative journalist, podcaster, and critically acclaimed author of both nonfiction and fiction books, including True Crime Addict and The Man from Primrose Lane. Previously the host of Lake Erie’s Coldest Cases on ID Discovery, he currently hosts the podcasts “The Philosophy of Crime” and “True Crime This Week.” He is the founder and director of The Porchlight Project, a nonprofit that provides genetic genealogy for cold cases in Ohio. He lives in Akron with his wife and children.
Brian Schoen is the chair of the Department of History and the James Richard Hamilton/Baker & Hostetler Distinguished Professor of Teaching in the Humanities at Ohio University. He is the author of The Fragile Fabric of Union: Cotton, Federal Politics, and the Global Origins of the Civil War and has coedited three other collections.
Settling Ohio, co-authored with Timothy Anderson, draws from scholars working in archaeology, education, history, geography, and politics to tell a nuanced story about the people and dynamics that reshaped Ohio and determined who would control it.
Amy Spears (she/her) graduated from Denison University with a degree in cinema and creative writing. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, where she is in her second decade as a skater with Ohio Roller Derby. She spent several years active in the leadership of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association and has given presentations, workshops and talks about the sport at Pecha Kecha Columbus, the Roller Derby World Summit, and Rollercon. Her digital essay (with Julie Driscoll) “Worlds Collide! facebook, family & George Costanza” was published in Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion, and her prose and poetry have appeared in Columbus Alive, Lynx Eye, and Wine X. A self-described “collector of hobbies,” she’ll try just about anything once.
Amy and Samantha Tucker co-authored Collective Chaos: A Roller Derby Team Memoir.
Samantha Tucker (she/her) is an antiracist teacher, writer, and editor in Columbus, Ohio. Sam writes personal essays, memoir, and cultural critique, having earned her MFA and MA in creative nonfiction. Her essay “Fountain Girls,” originally published in Ecotone, is a listed notable in Best American Essays 2017 and is anthologized in Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: An Anthology. Other essays have been published with Literary Hub, Columbus Alive, BUST, Brevity, and Guernica. In her spare time, Sam loves protest, mutual aid, roller derby, and karaoke. She is also quite vain about her hair.
Amy and Samantha Tucker co-authored Collective Chaos: A Roller Derby Team Memoir.
Mary Jane White is a poet and translator awarded NEA Fellowships in both poetry and translation. Her MFA is from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She practiced law for four decades.
Tamika Burgess is a storyteller with over a decade of novel, TV/film, and personal essay writing. Born to parents who migrated from Panamá, Tamika has always taken a particular interest in writing themes that explore her Black Latina identity. Because of her passion for spreading knowledge of Black Panamanian culture, Tamika has been featured on various websites, podcasts, and panels. When she is not writing, Tamika is somewhere cozy online shopping and listening to a podcast. Tamika resides in sunny, Southern California.
J. Anderson Coats has received two Junior Library Guild awards, two Washington State Book Awards, and earned starred reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, the Horn Book Review, and Shelf Awareness. Her newest books are A Season Most Unfair, a middle grade historical set in medieval England about a girl with something to prove; and The Night Ride, a middle grade action-adventure about horses in danger and kids who want to save them – if they can. She is also the author of Spindle and Dagger, The Green Children of Woolpit, R is for Rebel, The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming, and The Wicked and the Just.
Sydney Dunlap is a former elementary school teacher who has worked with at-risk youth in a variety of settings, and she enjoys reading and writing heartfelt, hopeful fiction that expands young readers’ awareness of tough topics. She is a published poet and has also written for a newspaper. A lifelong animal lover, Sydney lives with her family in a home where the dogs and cats outnumber the people.
Author Reese Eschmann is a proud product of Chicago Public Schools. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois-Chicago and worked as a school social worker for six years. When she’s not writing or taking naps, Reese enjoys rock climbing, baking, and making movies with her family. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and their hound dog.
Polly Farquhar is the author of Lolo Weaver Swims Upstream and Itch. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the Ohio State University, and her short stories for grown-ups have been published in literary magazines. She is also the recipient of multiple Individual Artist Grants from the Ohio Arts Council. She resides with her husband and daughters in the Columbus, Ohio area. Originally from upstate New York, her favorite place to canoe is the Adirondacks.
Caroline Huntoon (they/them) is an author and educator who writes middle grade and young adult fiction across genres. Their forthcoming novels include Skating on Mars (May 2023) and Linus and Etta Could Use a Win (spring 2024), both from Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan. Caroline lives with their feisty child, Winifred, in Ypsilanti, MI.
Kevin Johnson, aka “Captain Create”, studied screenwriting and filmmaking, graduating with honors, earning a Bachelors of Arts from Temple University. He loves to inspire future storytellers via school visits and speaking engagements.
The adopted son of two loving educators, Kevin fell in love with stories at an early age. From drawing his favorite comic superheroes to making movies with his dad’s Super 8mm camera, Kevin became enchanted with the magic of storytelling.
While his birthplace, Philadelphia, will always remain home, Kevin loves to travel and find inspiration for his next tale.
Kenneth Kraegel is the author-illustrator of the picture books Green Pants and King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson, which was named a New York Times Book Review Notable Children’s Book of the Year, as well as the board book This Is a Book of Shapes and the first chapter book Wild Honey from the Moon. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his family.
Thao Lam fled from Vietnam to Canada with her family as a child. Learning English was difficult, and it was picture books that helped her understand this new world and ignited her passion for visual storytelling. She has an insatiable love for colored and textured papers, which she uses to create her exuberant collages.
Chiquita Mullins Lee oversees arts education programs including Poetry Out Loud and Arts Partnership for the Ohio Art Council (OAC). A playwright, poet, and fiction/ creative non-fiction writer, Chiquita won individual artist/excellence awards in creative writing from GCAC and OAC and is published in national publications, including Fifth Wednesday, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, and Falling Star Magazine. Her plays have been staged by PAST Productions, A Portable Theatre, and CATCO, which premiered, Pierce to the Soul, about folk artist, Elijah Pierce. She co-authored You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce with Carmella Van Vleet.
Chiquita writes and performs onstage with Word Warriors Creative Writing Ministry at New Covenant Believers Church; with Wild Women Writing’s productions of Lost Lake by David Auburn, and Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare, among others; and in PAST PRODUCTIONS’ presentation of Sisters by Marsha Jackson.
Torrey Maldonado was born and raised in Brooklyn’s Red Hook projects. He has taught in New York City public schools for over 25 years and his fast-paced, compelling stories are inspired by his and his students’ experiences. His popular young readers novels include What Lane?, which won many starred reviews and was cited by Oprah Daily and the NY Times for being essential to discuss racism and allyship; Tight won the Christopher Award, was an ALA Notable Book, and an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year; and his first novel, Secret Saturdays, has stayed in print for over ten years.
As a professional musician, Matt McMann played an NFL stadium, a cruise ship, and the International Twins Convention. Now he writes the kind of spooky mystery-adventure books he loved as a kid. He’s hiked the Pacific Northwest, cruised Loch Ness, and chased a ghost on a mountain. While he missed Bigfoot and Nessie, he caught the ghost. He enjoys brainstorming new books with his wife, New York Times bestselling author Lisa McMann; viewing his son Kilian McMann’s artwork; and watching his daughter, actor Kennedy McMann, on television.
Wes Molebash is a cartoonist in Southern Ohio. He’s the author of several popular webcomics including “You’ll Have That” and “MOLEBASHED.” In addition to his webcomic work, he’s provided freelance illustration work for clients like Target, The Ohio State University, and PBS Kids. When he’s not drawing comics, he’s hanging out with his wife and kids or playing video games or eating unhealthy foods.
Amber Morrell is an author and librarian hailing from Southern California. She writes whimsical fantasy and science fiction for children and adults. Her work explores the liminal spaces between science and magic. In her free time, she plays D&D, watches Star Trek, and makes TikTok videos about esoteric knowledge. The Alchemy of Letting Go is her first novel.
Doan Phuong Nguyen was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States when she was in elementary school. After growing up in the South, she settled in the Midwest. DoanPhuong loves anything pink and cute but enjoys writing incredibly sad, emotionally evocative novels – Mèo and Bé is her debut novel about a young girl who follows a sweet kitten through war-torn Vietnam during the war.
Carmella Van Vleet is a former teacher and the award-winning author of almost 2 dozen books for kids and adults, including the award-winning middle-grade novel Eliza Bing Is (Not) A Big, Fat Quitter and the picture book To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space (co-authored with astronaut Kathy Sullivan). Carmella likes lists, exclamation points, and baking shows. But not necessarily in that order. Carmella lives in Columbus, Ohio.
She co-authored You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce with Chiquita Mullins Lee.
Erik Jon Slangerup grew up in a magical time, before cell phones or the internet. It was called the eighties. He spent most of it roaming outdoors unsupervised, which inspired him to write tales of adventure. Molly and the Machine is his debut middle grade novel. He has also written several picture books, including the award-winning Dirt Boy. Erik is the father of six, which has been his biggest adventure yet. He lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Tricia Springstubb is the author of books for young readers of all ages, including picture books, a chapter book series, and middle grade novels. Readers Digest named her most recent picture book, Khalil and Mr. Hagerty and the Backyard Treasures, one of the hundred best books for children ever written. Kirkus Review called her recent middle grade novel The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe, “a perfect thing in the world of juvenile literature”. In a starred review, The Horn Book called her newest novel, Looking For True, “Because of Winn-Dixie for a new generation.” A frequent speaker at schools, libraries and conferences, Tricia lives in Cleveland Heights.
Jessica Vitalis is a Columbia MBA-wielding author on a mission to write entertaining and thought-provoking literature. She founded “Magic in the Middle,” a series of free monthly recorded book talks, to help educators introduce young readers to new fantasy books. Her work has been translated into three languages, and she was recently named a 2021 Canada Council of the Arts Grant Recipient and featured on CBCs Here and Now.
David Wilson is both an artist and writer who teaches Graphic Narrative at Kent State University. David studied comic writing at the School of Visual Art, worked as an interior artist at Double Take Comics, was an inker on Planet of the Apes: Visionaries at Boom! comics, and publishes independent comics and graphic narratives such as his ongoing series The Everyday. He has worked on the visual side of the publishing industry since 2011 doing graphic design and illustration for companies such as The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, New York Magazine, Forbes, and more.
David co-authored Play Like a Girl with Misty Wilson.
Retired 7th-grade football star Misty Wilson received her M.A.T. from Kent State University and currently teaches fourth grade. Her students, especially those struggling with their identity and where they fit in, inspired Misty to share her own story.
Misty co-authored Play Like a Girl with David Wilson.
Merrill Wyatt grew up in Wauseon, Ohio, a small town nestled in the farm fields and woods of Northwest Ohio. She now lives in Sylvania, Ohio with her husband, teenage daughter, three cats, and a guinea pig who doesn’t like her very much. She teaches Business and Careers classes to middle schoolers. Many of whom would rather she mind her own business and not make them think about future careers, thank you very much.
Wyatt’s hobbies include kayaking and walking in Metroparks. (Which might sound boring, but it really isn’t. There could be a water monster in the Maumee River. There might be treasure buried somewhere in one of those parks. You never know.)
Kaija Langley was born in Northern NJ and raised on a healthy diet of library books, music and theater performances, and visits to the family farm in rural North Carolina.
The author of the award-winning picture book, When Langston Dances, she loves long road trips, dancing wherever music moves her, and adventures near and far with her Beloved.
Her debut middle grade novel, The Order of Things, is forthcoming from Nancy Paulsen Books on June 6, 2023. A second picture book, A Century for Caroline, with Denene Millner Books, is scheduled for Fall 2024.
Kristy Boyce lives in Columbus, OH and teaches psychology as a senior lecturer at The Ohio State University. When she’s not spending time with her husband and son, she’s usually writing, reading, putting together fairy gardens, or watching happy reality TV (The Great British Bake-Off and So You Think You Can Dance are perennial favorites). Kristy is the social media coordinator for Central and Southern Ohio SCBWI.
Federico Erebia is a retired physician, woodworker, author, and illustrator. He was born in Port Clinton, Ohio. He received a BA in chemistry from the College of Wooster, and an MD from Brown University. He is on the SCBWI Impact & Legacy Fund Steering Committee, and is an active member of several writing groups. His Pepito the Squirrelpicture books were self-published in 2021. His woodwork, furniture, and books have been featured in magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. He lives in Massachusetts with his husband, and their Westie & Whippet.
Anna Gracia was born and raised in Minnesota, where she survived on Dairy Queen blizzards and the sheer audacity of Jessica Wakefield. Her YA debut, Boys I Know, was both an Indies Introduce and an Indie Next pick, and was featured in The New York Times, Paste, Buzzfeed, and Seventeen. When not writing, you can find her napping or wishing she was napping.
RaeChell Garrett has written everything from marketing plans to health insurance benefit schedules, but she much prefers writing novels about the ups and downs of carefree girls falling in love and finding their way in the world. She lives in Michigan where she’s likely to be found trying a new recipe, talking sports with her husband or philosophizing on life with her two teenagers. Promposal is her debut novel.
Brian D. Kennedy writes books for young adults. Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives in New York City with his husband and their very photogenic dog. When he’s not writing, Brian can be found working at an LGBTQ non-profit. His slightly unhealthy obsessions include: seeing as many Broadway shows as possible, buying weird trinkets off eBay, and all things Dolly Parton.
Mindy McGinnis is the author of several young adult novels, including The Initial Insult, Heroine, The Female of the Species, and A Madness So Discreet, winner of the Edgar Award. She writes across multiple genres, including postapocalyptic, historical, thriller, contemporary, mystery, and fantasy. While her settings may change, you can always count on her books to deliver grit, truth, and an unflinching look at humanity and the world around us. Mindy lives in Ohio.
Kristi McManus is a Registered Nurse by trade, but avid reader and enthusiastic book lover all her life. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys photography, art, and considers napping to be a form of cardio. She lives in Toronto with her husband.
Ellen O’Clover writes stories about finding your people, falling in love, and figuring it all out (or trying to, anyway). She grew up in Ohio and studied creative writing at the Johns Hopkins University before moving west to Colorado. When she’s not writing, you can usually find her reading fiction about big feelings, trying new recipes with mixed results, or hiking in the Rockies. She lives in Denver with her rocket scientist husband and a perfect bulldog.
Rod Pulido, author, filmmaker, and self-proclaimed “World’s Biggest Ube Fanatic,” grew up in Cerritos, California. He earned his Bachelors of Arts in Film Production from California State University, Long Beach. His directorial debut,The Flip Side, became the first feature by a Filipino filmmaker to world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Rod strives to uplift and entertain with stories that highlight the Fil-Am experience. He enjoys collecting comic books and working out at the gym— stereotypes be damned!
Skye Quinlan (they/them) is a queer author of YA fiction who hides away all day writing. They’re an avid reader, a hoarder of crystals and gemstones, and an Astral Elf Druid in D&D. Their debut novel, Forward March, released in March of 2022 and was described by the School Library Journal as, “A wonderful ace rom-com bursting at the seams with representation.” Skye lives in Ohio with their wife, two dogs, a snake, and two lizards, and is represented by Moe Ferrara at BookEnds Literary Agency.
Edward Underhill (he/him) is a queer trans man who grew up in the suburbs of Wisconsin, where he could not walk to anything, which meant he had to make up his own adventures. He began writing (very bad) stories as a kid and wrote his first (also very bad) novel in his teens. In college, he studied music composition, before earning a master’s degree in film music composition. After a few years living in very tiny apartments in New York, he moved to California, where by day he writes music and by night he writes stories, which aren’t as bad as they used to be. When not doing either of these things, he’s probably gardening or hanging out with his cat. You can find him online on his website.
Shannon Watters is the co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning hit comic book series Lumberjanes. She is also a former senior editor and former founder/head of BOOM! Box line at BOOM! Studios. She loves vintage nonsense, cooking elaborate meals, and funny words. She lives with her partner in Los Angeles.
ASHLEY AUDRAIN’S debut novel, The Push, was a New York Times, Sunday Times (London), and number-one international bestseller, and a Good Morning America Book Club pick. It has sold in more than forty territories, and a limited television series is currently in development. Audrain previously worked as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada, and prior to that she worked in public relations. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children.
Jayne Allen is the pen name of Jaunique Sealey, a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School. An avid traveler, she speaks three languages and has visited five continents. Drawing from her unique experiences as an attorney and entrepreneur, she crafts transcultural stories that touch upon contemporary women’s issues such as workplace and career dynamics, race, fertility, modern relationships and mental health awareness. Her writing echoes her desire to bring both multiculturalism and multidimensionality to a rich and colorful cast of characters inspired by the magic uncovered in everyday life. She calls the Black Girls Must Die Exhausted series “the epitaph of my 30s.” A proud native of Detroit, she currently lives in Los Angeles.
Amina Akhtar is a former fashion writer and editor. Her satirical first novel, #FashionVictim, drew critical acclaim and was covered in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Martha Stewart Living and more. Akhtar has worked at Vogue, Elle, the New York Times, and New York Magazine, where she was the founding editor of the women’s blog The Cut. She’s written for numerous publications and currently lives not too far from the Sedona vortexes.
