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.
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Garin Pirnia
Garin Pirnia was born and raised in the rock-and-roll city of Dayton, Ohio. She has written about arts and culture for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Mental Floss, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Huffington Post, Eater, Paste Magazine, and many more publications. She is author of The Beer Cheese Book and screenwriter of The Finicky Cat, a short horror comedy that has won awards at film festivals and screenplay contests. Music, beer cheese, and cats―she does it all.
Allison Pitinii Davis
Allison Pitinii Davis is the author of _Line Study of a Motel Clerk_
(Baobab Press, 2017), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award’s
Berru Award for Poetry. This collection explores immigration, labor,
gender, and diaspora in Ohio’s Rust Belt. She is also the author of
_Poppy Seeds_ (Kent State University Press, 2013), winner of the Wick
Poetry Chapbook Prize. She holds an MFA from Ohio State University and
fellowships from Stanford University’s Wallace Stegner program, the Fine
Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Severinghaus Beck Fund for
Study at Vilnius Yiddish Institute. Her poetry has appeared in Best
American Poetry 2016, The New Republic, Crazyhorse, The Missouri Review,
Sycamore Review, Connotation Press, Crab Orchard Review and elsewhere.
She is pursuing a PhD at The University of Tennessee, where she serves
as a poetry editor of Grist.
Elana Pitts
Elana is a writer who has been published in 6 anthologies under Lake Erie Ink (LEI) and read at the 2017 Cleveland Drafts. Her first book, Little Wolfpine, was self-published in 2021. In 2022, she read at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). She is currently working as a program assistant, going into schools to help students express themselves creatively as she continues her work on new installments while pursuing her creative writing degree. Learn more: https://elanapittsep.wixsite.com/website-3
Sandy Plunkett
Sandy Plunkett, a self-taught illustrator and comic book artist, came of age in New York City during the ‘60s and ‘70s. He began drawing for Marvel Comics at eighteen and throughout his ongoing career he has drawn for several other major publishers, including DC. His trademark look can be seen on countless posters, album covers, and political cartoons. He lives in Athens, Ohio.
Connie & Robert J. Pond
Connie and Robert J. Pond have lived in Ohio for a lifetime while being associated with the Buckeye Trail for over 30 years. Throughout these years, hiking, maintaining and visiting along the trail have provided them with a unique perspective of Ohio, its history, biology, geology and beauty. Robert spent two years researching areas near the Buckeye Trail, picking great hiking trails and then weaving together the historic and natural wonders of the area to make each hike an experience, not just a walk. Connie and Robert then circuit hiked the entire 1400 miles and spent many weekends hiking and experiencing Ohio’s sights along the way. Research for the 2nd edition took them back to areas of Ohio that are most enchanting. Connie and Robert are central Ohio residents and graduates of Ohio State University. Their careers were in engineering and human services. Their passion is the Buckeye Trail.
Pamela A. Popper
Pamela A. Popper, Ph.D., ND, is a naturopath; an internationally recognized expert on nutrition, medicine, and health; and the Executive Director of The Wellness Forum. Dr. Popper serves on the Physician’s Steering Committee and the President’s Board for the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C. Dr. Popper is one of the health care professionals involved in the famed Sacramento Food Bank Project, in which economically disadvantaged people were shown how to reverse their diseases and eliminate medications with diet.…
Read MorePamela A. Popper, Ph.D., ND, is a naturopath; an internationally recognized expert on nutrition, medicine, and health; and the Executive Director of The Wellness Forum. Dr. Popper serves on the Physician’s Steering Committee and the President’s Board for the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C. Dr. Popper is one of the health care professionals involved in the famed Sacramento Food Bank Project, in which economically disadvantaged people were shown how to reverse their diseases and eliminate medications with diet. Dr. Popper is part of Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s teaching team at eCornell, teaching part of a certification course on plant-based nutrition. She has been featured in many widely distributed documentaries, including Processed People and Making a Killing, and appeared in Forks Over Knives, which played in major theaters throughout North America in 2011. She is one of the coauthors of the companion book, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for several months.
Frank W. Porter
Dr. Frank W. Porter earned his Ph.D. in Historical Geography at the University of Maryland and came to his appreciation of native plants by a circuitous route. He spent most of his childhood overseas as his father was transferred from one Army post to another, and he has vivid memories of fields of poppies in France, alpine plants in the Alps, and dark forests in Germany.…
Read MoreDr. Frank W. Porter earned his Ph.D. in Historical Geography at the University of Maryland and came to his appreciation of native plants by a circuitous route. He spent most of his childhood overseas as his father was transferred from one Army post to another, and he has vivid memories of fields of poppies in France, alpine plants in the Alps, and dark forests in Germany. After a career as a Native American scholar, Dr. Porter returned to southern Ohio and began growing plants as a hobby, which quickly turned into a vocation. Porterbrook Native Plants nursery, on the banks of the Ohio River in southeastern Ohio, is devoted to the native plants of southern Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia. Dr. Porter continues to collect seeds from interesting and endangered species in the area, and friends and associates send him seeds from plants in neighboring states. He provides native plants for gardeners and public gardens, which he also designs throughout Ohio and West Virginia.
Michael Prelee
Michael Prelee is a crime and science-fiction author who grew up in rural Northeast Ohio and graduated from Youngstown State University. His first published work is the Milky Way Repo sci-fi crime series published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy. He is also the author of the small-town Tim Abernathy Mystery Series, published by North Star Press. The first entry in the series is Murder in the Heart of It All. Lost Little Sister is the sequel.
Bryan Prosek
Bryan resides in Columbus, Ohio where he is a practicing business attorney with the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. He enjoys board games and outdoor activities- hiking, biking, and camping- with his family. His first two novels, The Brighter the Stars and A Measure of Serenity, have been published by CamCat Publishing. His third novel, The Darker the Skies, also being published by CamCat, will be out in the November, 2022. In addition, he has published numerous articles in legal trade journals and magazines. In addition to practicing law and writing, Bryan is actively involved in the fight against human trafficking. He assists several nonprofit organizations that combat human trafficking at various levels both within the United States and around the world. He provides pro bono legal services to these organizations as well as volunteer work. He also sits on the Board of Directors of three such organizations. You can find more about Bryan at his website, http://www.bryankprosek.com, taking you to new worlds.