Ohio Author Profiles
Ohio has a rich literary heritage as well as some wonderful contemporary authors. Learn more about them here! You can sort by various categories and see who has participated in our annual book festival by using the category search on the left, or search by keyword (including partial author names) by using the search field on the right.
If you would like to know which Ohio authors and illustrators are available for school and library visits or workshops, visit our School & Library Visits page here.
We continue to add authors, so check back soon!
Judith Turner-Yamamoto
JUDITH TURNER-YAMAMOTO grew up in rural North Carolina in a small mill town. An art historian, she first came to writing through learning to appraise what she saw and to describe what moved her. Her debut novel, Loving the Dead and Gone, was finalist for the 2020 Petrichor Prize and releases September 2022 from Regal House Publishing. Her work has appeared in StorySOUTH, Mississippi Review, Snake Nation Review, and American Literary Review, among others, and in many anthologies, including Walking the Edge: A Southern Gothic Anthology, Show Us Your Papers, and Gravity Dancers. Her awards include a 2018 Ohio Arts Council fellowship, 2016 Writer-in-Residence for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, finalist; two Virginia Arts Commission fellowships, VCCA and Fundación Valparaiso fellowship residencies, the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, the Washington Prize for Fiction, and the Virginia Screenwriting Award. An inveterate traveler, her article assignments, which include interviews with such luminaries as Frank Gehry, Annie Leibovitz, Alison Krauss, and Lucinda Williams, have taken her all over the world, and she has published more than a thousand cover stories and features on the arts, design, architecture, interiors and gardens, travel, food, fashion, and books in such publications as The Boston Globe Magazine, Elle, Interiors, Art & Antiques, The Los Angeles Times, and Travel & Leisure. Her on-air interviews were featured on “Around Cincinnati”, a weekly art talk show on NPR affiliate WVXU. She has taught fiction at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, Chautauqua Institution, the Danville Writer’s Conference, and the Writers’ Center, Bethesda, Maryland. She lives in Cincinnati, OH with her husband, visual artist Shinji Turner-Yamamoto. Learn more at http://www.turneryamamoto.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Jane Ann Turzillo
Author Jane Ann Turzillo is a multi-National Federation of Press Women award winner for her books and journalism. She has been nominated twice for the Agatha for her Ohio-based vintage true crime books. She started her writing career as a journalist and worked her way up to become one of the original owners of a large weekly newspaper, where she covered police, fire and hard news. Before she turned to writing books, she wrote short stories and articles that were published in newspapers and magazines across the United States and Canada. She is a graduate of The University of Akron with degrees in Criminal Justice Technology and Mass-Media Communication. She is a member of National Federation of Press Women, Society of Professional Journalists, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime. Her most recent books are Wicked Women of Ohio; Ohio Heists: Historic Bank Holdups, Trains Robberies, Jewel Stings and More; and Wicked Cleveland. Visit her website at http://www.janeannturzillo.com and read her blog at http://darkheartedwomen.wordpress.com.
Carmella Van Vleet
Carmella Van Vleet is a former teacher and the author of numerous books for children, including You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce! The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce (co-authored with Chiquita Mullins Lee) and several Junior Library Gold Standard Selections including Nothing Is Little. Her debut novel, Eliza Bing Is (Not) A Big Fat Quitter, received the Christopher Award and was named to four state award master lists. Just like Eliza, Carmella loves tae kwon do—she has earned her black belt! She lives in Ohio and can be found online at: https://carmellavanvleet.com/
Marie Vibbert
Marie Vibbert has sold over 80 short stories to magazines like Nature, Vice, and Amazing Stories. Her work has been translated into Czech, French, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, was on the long-list for the British Science Fiction Award in 2021. She played women’s professional football for the Cleveland Fusion and by day, she is a computer programmer at Case Western Reserve University. Learn more at: https://www.marievibbert.com/
Wendy Vogel
D. W. Vogel is a veterinarian, board game developer, cancer survivor, SCUBA diver, and current president of Cincinnati Fiction Writers. She is the author of the Horizon Alpha Series, the fantasy novel Super Dungeon: The Forgotten King, and the writing manual Five Minutes to Success: Master the Craft of Writing. Learn more at: https://wendyvogelbooks.com/
Andrea Wang
Andrea Wang is the award-winning author of Watercress, illustrated by Jason Chin, which Kirkus called “Understated, deep, and heart rending” in a starred review. She is also the author of The Nian Monster and Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando as well as the middle-grade novel, The Many Meanings of Meilan. Andrea holds an M.S. in Environmental Science and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing for Young People. She lives in Colorado with her family. Check out her website: https://andreaywang.com/
Sara Bennett Wealer
Sara grew up in Manhattan, Kansas (the “Little Apple”), where she sang in all the choirs and wrote for the high school newspaper. She majored in voice performance at the University of Kansas before transferring to journalism school and becoming a reporter covering everything from house fires to Hollywood premieres. She now works in marketing. Sara lives in Cincinnati with her husband, two daughters, and a growing menagerie of pets. When she’s not writing, you can find her at the ballet, or obsessively watching ballet on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Learn more at: https://www.sarabennettwealer.com/
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, an Associated Press reporter and freelance writer, is the author of the crime novel The End of the Road; the Andy Hayes private eye series, including the Shamus Award-nominated An Empty Grave; and the editor of Columbus Noir. His short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, the anthology “The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year 2021,” and other magazines and anthologies. Learn more at: https://www.andrewwelshhuggins.com/
Julie Whitney
Julie Whitney is a public relations professional with forty years of experience in public relations and marketing, having worked on both the agency and client side as well as in the television industry. Her company, Phillippi-Whitney Communications, LLC, founded in 2000, represents both large and small clients in a wide variety of industries. She has promoted dozens of authors throughout her career, often supplementing the efforts of the internal PR teams of their publishers. She also works as on-camera talent, appearing in both television commercials and video podcasts. She even appeared as an extra in the movie Grease, which was shot on location in the summer of 1977 in Los Angeles. Learn more at: https://astrathelonelyairplane.com/
Brieanna Wilkoff
Brieanna Wilkoff (she/her) believes wholeheartedly in the power of kindness, the importance of theatre, and the awesomeness of ’80s rock. She married her husband onstage at the oldest surviving theatre in central Ohio, and their first dance was to Bon Jovi’s “Thank You for Loving Me.” Her favorite musical is a three-way tie between Les Mis, Wicked, and Hamilton.
I’ll Be There for You is Brieanna’s debut young adult novel. It was inspired by her family’s commitment to kindness, including performing 100 kind acts in a single day. Brieanna lives in Westerville, Ohio, with her husband, daughter, and dog. You can visit her online at brieannawilkoff.com or follow her on Twitter (@BrieannaWilkoff), Instagram (@brieanna_wilkoff), or Facebook (Brieanna Wilkoff).