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 Tom Betti

Tom Betti

Tom Betti serves on the board of Columbus Landmarks Foundation and is also chair of the Education Committee charged with leading the organization’s educational tours and extensive programming. He also founded and leads the Historic Preservation Committee of the Athletic Club of Columbus, celebrating, organizing, and documenting the club’s one-hundred-year history.

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Tom Betti serves on the board of Columbus Landmarks Foundation and is also chair of the Education Committee charged with leading the organization’s educational tours and extensive programming. He also founded and leads the Historic Preservation Committee of the Athletic Club of Columbus, celebrating, organizing, and documenting the club’s one-hundred-year history.

Photo of Matt Betts

Matt Betts

Matt Betts is an author and former radio personality. His work includes such science fiction novels as the critically recognized adventure Odd Men Out and its sequel Red Gear Nine, the urban fantasy Indelible Ink, the giant monster vs. giant robot book The Shadow Beneath the Waves, and the cryptid horror tale White Anvil: Sasquatch Onslaught.…Read More

Matt Betts is an author and former radio personality. His work includes such science fiction novels as the critically recognized adventure Odd Men Out and its sequel Red Gear Nine, the urban fantasy Indelible Ink, the giant monster vs. giant robot book The Shadow Beneath the Waves, and the cryptid horror tale White Anvil: Sasquatch Onslaught. He is also an accomplished speculative poet, and lives in Columbus with his wife and children.

Jill Bialosky

Jill Bialosky is the author of three previous poetry collections: The End of Desire, Subterranean, and Intruder. Her poems have appeared in journals such as the Paris Review, the Kenyon Review, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic Monthly. She is also the author of several novels and the memoir History of a Suicide: My Sister's Unfinished Life.…Read More

Jill Bialosky is the author of three previous poetry collections: The End of Desire, Subterranean, and Intruder. Her poems have appeared in journals such as the Paris Review, the Kenyon Review, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic Monthly. She is also the author of several novels and the memoir History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life. Bialosky is an editor at W.W. Norton and lives in New York City.

Photo of Laura Bickle

Laura Bickle

Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology - Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in criminal justice.…Read More

Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology – Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the stairs, also writing contemporary fantasy novels under the name Alayna Williams. Her work has been included in the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016. Her newest project is the Wildlands contemporary fantasy series for Harper Voyager. The latest updates on her work are available at http://www.laurabickle.com/

Photo of Karin Biggs

Karin Biggs

Karin earned her bachelor's degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Purdue University and served as an event planner for two Big 10 universities and various non-profits for over eight years before becoming a stay-at-home-mom. She enjoys chocolate-covered peanuts, uninterrupted sleep and singing with other people. Karin lives in Ohio with her husband, daughter, son, cat and dog.Read More

Karin earned her bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management from Purdue University and served as an event planner for two Big 10 universities and various non-profits for over eight years before becoming a stay-at-home-mom. She enjoys chocolate-covered peanuts, uninterrupted sleep and singing with other people. Karin lives in Ohio with her husband, daughter, son, cat and dog.

Photo of George Bilgere

George Bilgere

George Bilgere’s eighth collection of poetry is Central Air (2022). He has received the Midland Authors Prize, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the May Swenson Poetry Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Witter Bynner Fellowship through the Library of Congress, the Devins Award, the University of Akron Poetry Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Ohioana Poetry Prize, the Autumn House Poetry Prize, the Cleveland Arts Prize, a Cleveland Creative Workforce grant, and four Individual Excellence grants from the Ohio Arts Council.…Read More

George Bilgere’s eighth collection of poetry is Central Air (2022). He has received the Midland Authors Prize, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the May Swenson Poetry Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Witter Bynner Fellowship through the Library of Congress, the Devins Award, the University of Akron Poetry Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Ohioana Poetry Prize, the Autumn House Poetry Prize, the Cleveland Arts Prize, a Cleveland Creative Workforce grant, and four Individual Excellence grants from the Ohio Arts Council. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, Southern Review, Iowa Review, Georgia Review, Sewanee Review, New Ohio Review, Hopkins Quarterly, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. In 2021 he was the winner of the New Ohio Review’s Editor’s Choice Poetry Prize.

 Bilgere has given poetry readings at the Library of Congress, the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC., the Chautauqua Institute, the Philip Larkin Library in Hull, England, and colleges, bookstores and libraries around the country. NPR listeners know him from his appearances on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion and more than fifty appearances on the National Public Radio broadcast, The Writer’s Almanac. 

 Here in Cleveland, Bilgere, a recipient of John Carroll’s Distinguished Faculty Award, hosts a popular spoken word radio show on WJCU called Wordplay. Bilgere lives in Cleveland Heights with his marvelous wife and two very fine little boys. They spend their summers in Berlin, Germany, and can tell you a great deal about beer gardens.

Roger Billings

Roger Billings is a professor at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law. His articles have appeared in such publications as the ABA Journal, Journal of Illinois History, and International Law. In addition, he worked seven years for a major New York City publishing company, Charles Scribner’s Sons.…Read More

Roger Billings is a professor at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law. His articles have appeared in such publications as the ABA Journal, Journal of Illinois History, and International Law. In addition, he worked seven years for a major New York City publishing company, Charles Scribner’s Sons. He received his AB from Wabash College and his JD from the University of Akron. In addition to co-editing Abraham Lincoln, Esquire, he has also written books for legal practitioners: Prepaid Legal Services, Handling Automobile Warranty and Repossession Cases, Floor Planning, Financing and Leasing in the Automobile Industry, and Handling Business Transactions in the Common Market and Eastern Europe. He currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Photo of Jenn Bishop

Jenn Bishop

Jenn Bishop is the author of five novels for young readers, including the Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner Things You Can’t Say and 2023 & 2024 Choose to Read Ohio title Where We Used to Roam. 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.…Read More

Jenn Bishop is the author of five novels for young readers, including the Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner Things You Can’t Say and 2023 & 2024 Choose to Read Ohio title Where We Used to Roam. 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, Ohio, home. What team do you think she roots for?

Lisa Black

Lisa Black spent the happiest five years of her life in a morgue. Strange, perhaps, but true. After ten years as a secretary, she went back to school to get a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Cleveland State University. In her job as a forensic scientist at the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office, Black analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes.…Read More

Lisa Black spent the happiest five years of her life in a morgue. Strange, perhaps, but true. After ten years as a secretary, she went back to school to get a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Cleveland State University. In her job as a forensic scientist at the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office, Black analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. She is now a latent fingerprint examiner in Florida. Black has lectured at writer’s conventions and appeared on panels. In her life as a writer she is a member of Sisters In Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers.

Photo of Mansel G. Blackford

Mansel G. Blackford

Mansel G. Blackford is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University.Read More

Mansel G. Blackford is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University.