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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Photo of Paula Stone Tucker

Paula Stone Tucker

Paula Stone Tucker was a witness to the May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State University. A retired clinical psychologist, she worked with families, couples, and survivors of trauma and abuse. In her younger days she was a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal and the Daily Kent Stater. She grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and graduated from Kent State University.…Read More

Paula Stone Tucker was a witness to the May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State University. A retired clinical psychologist, she worked with families, couples, and survivors of trauma and abuse. In her younger days she was a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal and the Daily Kent Stater. She grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and graduated from Kent State University. She splits her time between northeast Ohio and The Villages, Florida where she writes, plays the flute and is learning to play golf. Her first book, Surviving: A Kent State Memoir, won the Silver Medal at the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Award Competition in 2019. She is available for interviews. You can contact her at paulastonetucker.com or on Facebook at Paula Stone Tucker, Author. She looks forward to hearing from you and reading your reviews.

Photo of Samantha Tucker

Samantha Tucker

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.…Read More

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. Her latest book, Collective Chaos: A Roller Derby Team Memoir, was written with co-author Amy Spears. Learn more at: https://www.theamericandreamstartshere.com/

Photo of Frank Tupta

Frank Tupta

FRANK TUPTA (TUP like UP) grew up in a haunted house in Cleveland. His favorite holiday is Halloween. He still dresses up every year. He currently lives in Peninsula, Ohio surrounded by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park with his wife, children's book author + illustrator Lindsay Ward, their three boys, and Sally, a rambunctious pit-bulllab mix who keeps things interesting by chasing coyotes in their backyard.…Read More

FRANK TUPTA (TUP like UP) grew up in a haunted house in Cleveland. His favorite holiday is Halloween. He still dresses up every year. He currently lives in Peninsula, Ohio surrounded by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park with his wife, children’s book author + illustrator Lindsay Ward, their three boys, and Sally, a rambunctious pit-bulllab mix who keeps things interesting by chasing coyotes in their backyard. Most days you can find Frank writing, walking Sally with his family, driving around on his tractor, or co-running http://www.critterlit.com with his wife, a website offering free critiques and advice for up-and-coming authors and illustrators.

TJ Turner

TJ Turner is an aspiring novelist, research scientist for the US Air Force, and a Federal Agent as a reserve member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He graduated from Cornell University, where his love of writing was almost snuffed out by a 350 page doctoral dissertation. After rekindling his passion for the writing life he has written three novels, the most recent being Lincoln’s Bodyguard (due out from Oceanview Publishing in April 2015).…Read More

TJ Turner is an aspiring novelist, research scientist for the US Air Force, and a Federal Agent as a reserve member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He graduated from Cornell University, where his love of writing was almost snuffed out by a 350 page doctoral dissertation. After rekindling his passion for the writing life he has written three novels, the most recent being Lincoln’s Bodyguard (due out from Oceanview Publishing in April 2015).

As a reserve military officer, the federal government as generously provided him with numerous overseas vacations at taxpayer expense, where during his most recent deployment his love of writing was almost snuffed out again, this time by a 107mm rocket fashioned into a crudely made roadside bomb. In 2013 he was awarded a Bronze Star for combat action in Afghanistan, including the capture of 16 insurgents and the neutralization of 12 weapons caches. An essay he wrote for about his deployments to Afghanistan—The Power of Teddy Bears—was accepted and read on NPR’s This I Believe national essay series. He also serves as the vice-president of the Antioch Writer’s Workshop in Yellow Springs, OH.

Photo of Judith Turner-Yamamoto

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.…Read More

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.

Photo of Jane Ann Turzillo

Jane Ann Turzillo

Jane Ann Turzillo is the author of ten books. She 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, Ohio Train Disasters, and others.…Read More

Jane Ann Turzillo is the author of ten books. She 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, Ohio Train Disasters, and 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. Visit her website at http://www.janeannturzillo.com.

Photo of Tara Tyler

Tara Tyler

Tara Tyler has had a hand in everything from waitressing to rocket engineering. After moving all over the US, she now writes and teaches math in Ohio with her husband and one boy left in the nest. She has two novel series, Pop Travel (sci-fi detective thrillers) and Beast World (fantasy adventures), plus her UnPrincess novella series where the damsels save themselves.…Read More

Tara Tyler has had a hand in everything from waitressing to rocket engineering. After moving all over the US, she now writes and teaches math in Ohio with her husband and one boy left in the nest. She has two novel series, Pop Travel (sci-fi detective thrillers) and Beast World (fantasy adventures), plus her UnPrincess novella series where the damsels save themselves. She’s a commended blogger, contributed to several anthologies, and to fit all these projects in, she economizes her time, aka the Lazy Housewife—someday she might write a book on that… Make every day an adventure!