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!

 

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Photo of Bob Batchelor

Bob Batchelor

Batchelor (www.bobbatchelor.com), who teaches in the Media, Journalism & Film Department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is the author or editor of more than 25 books, including Mad Men: A Cultural History, John Updike: A Critical Biography, and Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel, among others.…Read More

Batchelor (www.bobbatchelor.com), who teaches in the Media, Journalism & Film Department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is the author or editor of more than 25 books, including Mad Men: A Cultural History, John Updike: A Critical Biography, and Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel, among others. He is a noted popular culture commentator.

Photo of Tom Batiuk

Tom Batiuk

Tom Batiuk is a graduate of Kent State University. His Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft comic strips are carried in hundreds of newspapers throughout the United States. He was recognized as one of three finalists in the editorial cartooning category of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize awards competition for the singular series of daily comic strips that chronicled the death of longtime character Lisa Moore, which were collected in Lisa’s Legacy Trilogy.…Read More

Tom Batiuk is a graduate of Kent State University. His Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft comic strips are carried in hundreds of newspapers throughout the United States. He was recognized as one of three finalists in the editorial cartooning category of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize awards competition for the singular series of daily comic strips that chronicled the death of longtime character Lisa Moore, which were collected in Lisa’s Legacy Trilogy. His Funky Winkerbean series and Roses in December were finalists for the 2016 Eisner Awards. https://tombatiuk.com/

Paul J. Bauer

Paul J. Bauer is a used and rare book dealer in Kent, Ohio. He is the coauthor of Frazier Robinson’s autobiography, Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues.Read More

Paul J. Bauer is a used and rare book dealer in Kent, Ohio. He is the coauthor of Frazier Robinson’s autobiography, Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues.

Celeste Baumgartner

Celeste Baumgartner grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1970 she and her husband, John, moved to a farm in Hanover Township, Ohio. In addition to their four children, they had horses, ponies, dogs, cats, cows, chickens. They raised hay and grain crops. Later they put in conservation plantings and planted Christmas trees. This was all for fun and education more than for making money.…Read More

Celeste Baumgartner grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1970 she and her husband, John, moved to a farm in Hanover Township, Ohio. In addition to their four children, they had horses, ponies, dogs, cats, cows, chickens. They raised hay and grain crops. Later they put in conservation plantings and planted Christmas trees. This was all for fun and education more than for making money. Baumgartner has been a piano teacher for thirty years and taught yoga for fifteen years. She has been a freelance writer for twenty-five years. She is a correspondent for Farm World and for fifteen years had two columns in the Journal-News. She has written for Ohio Outdoor News, the Catholic Telegraph and for magazines such as Country Living, Home & Away, Bird Watchers Digest, Farm & Ranch Living, Farmers’ Markets Today and more.

Photo of Janet Beard

Janet Beard

Born and raised in East Tennessee, Janet Beard moved to New York to study screenwriting at NYU and went on to earn an MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her first novel, 'Beneath the Pines', was published in 2008, and her follow-up, 'The Atomic City Girls' became an international bestseller 2018. Janet's latest novel, The Ballad of Laurel Springs, was published in October 2021.…Read More

Born and raised in East Tennessee, Janet Beard moved to New York to study screenwriting at NYU and went on to earn an MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her first novel, ‘Beneath the Pines’, was published in 2008, and her follow-up, ‘The Atomic City Girls’ became an international bestseller 2018. Janet’s latest novel, The Ballad of Laurel Springs, was published in October 2021. Janet has lived and worked in Australia, England, Boston, and Columbus, Ohio, where she is currently raising a daughter and working on a new novel.

Pete Beatty

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Photo of Carrie Bebris

Carrie Bebris

Carrie Bebris spent her childhood in Toledo before beginning her writing career as a journalist, college English teacher, and editor. After publishing two fantasy novels, she made her mystery debut with Pride and Prescience, which earned a place on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestseller list and was named one of the five best mysteries of the year by Library Journal.…Read More

Carrie Bebris spent her childhood in Toledo before beginning her writing career as a journalist, college English teacher, and editor. After publishing two fantasy novels, she made her mystery debut with Pride and Prescience, which earned a place on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestseller list and was named one of the five best mysteries of the year by Library Journal. Successive books in the series have received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and won several awards, including the 2007 Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence in romantic suspense. Bebris holds a master’s degree in English literature and is a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She speaks locally and nationally about Austen, writing, and publishing, and is on the faculty of the Antioch Writers Workshop in Yellow Springs. When not writing, Bebris likes to travel and indulge in her love of all things British. She now lives in the Dayton area.

Photo of Joe David Bellamy

Joe David Bellamy

Born on December 29, 1941, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Joe David Bellamy was the son of Orin Ross and Beulah Pearl (Zutavern) Bellamy.  He attended Duke University, 1959-1961; he received a BA in Literature from Antioch College in 1964 and received an MFA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1969.…Read More

Born on December 29, 1941, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Joe David Bellamy was the son of Orin Ross and Beulah Pearl (Zutavern) Bellamy.  He attended Duke University, 1959-1961; he received a BA in Literature from Antioch College in 1964 and received an MFA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1969. Bellamy married Connie Sue Arendsee in 1964. Professor, writer and poet, Bellamy taught at several colleges and universities, including the University of Iowa, Virginia Wesleyan College, St. Lawrence University, and George Mason University, and was Whichard Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at East Carolina University. His literary papers are archived at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. Joe David Bellamy died suddenly on August 5, 2014 in Sanford, Florida.

The founding editor of Fiction International magazine (1973), Bellamy was a former president of both the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) and the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines; he also served as Director of the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts (1990-1992).  His articles, fiction, poetry and reviews have been published in The Atlantic,The NationHarper’sParis ReviewNarrativeThe New York Times Book ReviewPloughsharesPartisan ReviewStoryNorth American ReviewThe Washington Post Book World, and more than sixty others.

In 1989 Bellamy won the Editors’ Book Award from Pushcart Press for his novel Suzi Sinzinnati, and Atomic Love, his 1993 collection of short stories, was an AWP Award Series selection. He also authored/edited sixteen other books, including Green Freedom, 2012; The Lost Saranac Interviews:  Forgotten Conversations with  Famous Writers, 2007; New World Extra, Literary Luxuries: American Writing at the End of the Millennium, 1995; American Poetry Observed: Poets On Their Work, 1988; The Frozen Sea: Poems, 1988; Olympic Gold Medalist: Poems, 1978; Superfiction, or The American Story Transformed, 1975; The New Fiction: Interviews with Innovative Writers, 1974, and three genealogy books: Kindred Spirits: 400 Years of an American Family, 2011; Island in the Sky: Bellamy and Allied Families, 2010, and The Bellamys of Early Virginia, 2005.

Jules Bennett

Jules Bennett sold her first romance novel in 2005 and hasn’t looked back. Since then, she has sold several books to The Wild Rose Press, Samhain Publishing, and Silhouette Desire. She won the Linda Howard Award of Excellence in 2005. Bennett works part-time in a bustling salon, raises two little girls and is married to her high school sweetheart.Read More

Jules Bennett sold her first romance novel in 2005 and hasn’t looked back. Since then, she has sold several books to The Wild Rose Press, Samhain Publishing, and Silhouette Desire. She won the Linda Howard Award of Excellence in 2005. Bennett works part-time in a bustling salon, raises two little girls and is married to her high school sweetheart.

Photo of Pam Bennett

Pam Bennett

Pam Bennett is the State Master Gardener volunteer coordinator for Ohio, and is the Horticulture Educator and Director for Ohio State University Extension in Clark County. She has a degree in landscape horticulture. Bennett lives in Madison, Ohio.Read More

Pam Bennett is the State Master Gardener volunteer coordinator for Ohio, and is the Horticulture Educator and Director for Ohio State University Extension in Clark County. She has a degree in landscape horticulture. Bennett lives in Madison, Ohio.