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!
W.H. Chip Gross
Freelance writer, photographer, speaker, and editor Chip Gross has been fascinated by the out-of-doors all his life. At an early age, Gross was taught to fish by his grandfather and as a young teenager learned to hunt from his father. Gross attended Ohio State University, majoring in Wildlife Management. In 1976, Gross was hired by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, as a State Wildlife Officer.…
Read MoreFreelance writer, photographer, speaker, and editor Chip Gross has been fascinated by the out-of-doors all his life. At an early age, Gross was taught to fish by his grandfather and as a young teenager learned to hunt from his father. Gross attended Ohio State University, majoring in Wildlife Management. In 1976, Gross was hired by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, as a State Wildlife Officer. He has also written four books: Home, At Last, Is The Hunter, a fiction novel; Pro Tactics: Steelhead & Salmon; Ohio Wildlife Viewing Guide; and Young Beginner’s Guide to Shooting & Archery. A member of Outdoor Writers of Ohio and the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Gross has been tired from the Ohio DNR since 2002.
Blair P. Grubb
Blair Grubb is professor of cardiovascular medicine and pediatrics and Director of Electrophysiology Services at the University of Toledo Medical Center. He writes poetry and essays and is a pen and ink artist. His essays have been published in Toledo Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Pen World and PACE. He is also the author of The Fainting Phenomenon: Understanding Why People Faint and What Can Be Done About It.
Jill Grunenwald
Jill Grunenwald has her BFA from Bowling Green State University and her MLIS from the University of Kentucky. She is the author of two memoirs: Running with a Police Escort: Tales from the Back of the Pack(Skyhorse, 2017) and Reading Behind Bars: A Memoir of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian (Skyhorse, 2019). Currently, she is employed as a marketing & communications specialist at OverDrive, the leading ebook and audiobook app for libraries, where she is also the creator and co-host of the Professional Book Nerds podcast.
Jeff Gundy
Jeff Gundy, long-time professor of English at Bluffton University, has published many books of poems and prose, including Abandoned Homeland, Somewhere Near Defiance, Songs from an Empty Cage: Poetry, Mystery, Anabaptism, and Peace, and Spoken Among the Trees. His earlier Bottom Dog books include Rhapsody with Dark Matter and Inquiries. A 2008 Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Salzburg, he taught at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania in spring 2015. He plays 6- and 12-string guitar, and puts in as many miles as possible on his road bike and, with his wife Marlyce, on their Cannondale tandem.
His poems and essays have appeared in Georgia Review, The Sun, Image, Kenyon Review, Christian Century, Mennonite Quarterly Review, Conrad Grebel Review, Nimrod, and many other magazines. Other honors and awards include multiple Ohio Arts Council fellowships, two C. Henry Smith Peace Lectureships, Bechtel and Yoder Lectureships, a Nancy Dasher Award, a Society of Midland Authors Poetry Award, and the 2015 Simons Lectures at Bethel (KS) College. He was named the Ohio Poet of the Year by the Ohio Poetry Day Society for Somewhere Near Defiance.
Kari Gunter-Seymour
Kari Gunter-Seymour’s poetry collections include A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions 2020) winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award; and Serving (Crisis Chronicles Press 2018/2020) runner up, Yellow Chair Review Chapbook Contest. Her poems appear in numerous journals and publications including Verse Daily, Rattle, The NY Times, and on her website: http://www.karigunterseymourpoet.com. Her work was selected by former US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey to be included in the PBS American Portrait crowdsourced poem, Remix: For My People. A poem she wrote in support of families living in poverty in Athens County, OH, went viral and was seen by over 100,000 people, resulting in thousands of dollars donated to her local food pantry. Gunter-Seymour has provided poetry workshops to incarcerated teens and adults and women in recovery as well as teaching an ongoing series of virtual monthly generative free-writing workshops. A ninth generation Appalachian, she is the founder/executive director of the Women of Appalachia Project (WOAP) (www.womenofappalachia.com) and editor of the WOAP anthology series, Women Speak, volumes 1-6. She is the Poet Laureate of Ohio.
Ted Gup
Ted Gup is the author of the bestseller The Book of Honor, winner of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Book-of-the-Year Award, and Nation of Secrets, winner of the Shorenstein Book Prize. He is Professor and Chair of the Journalism Department at Emerson College. A former investigative reporter for The Washington Post, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and Time magazine, he has taught at Case Western Reserve University, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing as a Fulbright Scholar. He has written for publications such as the Smithsonian, National Geographic, The New York Times, Boston Globe, Village Voice, Sports Illustrated, Slate, GQ, Mother Jones, Audubon, Columbia Journalism Review, NPR, and Newsweek. Visit Ted’s website: http://www.asecretgiftbook.com/.
Sandra Gurvis
Sandra Gurvis (http://www.sandragurvis.com) is the author of seventeen commercially published books and hundreds of magazine articles. Her titles include DAY TRIPS FROM COLUMBUS, 3rd ed.; OHIO CURIOSITIES, 2nd ed.; CAREERS FOR NONCONFORMISTS, which was a selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club; AMERICA’S STRANGEST MUSEUMS, 2nd ed.; and more. Along having her books featured on radio, television and in newspapers and magazines, her biography, PARIS HILTON (ABC-CLIO, 2011) has been translated into Chinese. Her newest nonfiction title is 111 PLACES IN COLUMBUS THAT YOU MUST NOT MISS (Emons, 2019) along with the more recent MYTHS AND MYSTERIES OF OHIO (Globe Pequot), her second novel, COUNTRY CLUB WIVES (Loconeal) and a collection of essays and shorter works, CONFESSIONS OF A CRAZY CAT LADY AND OTHER POSSIBLY DEMENTED MEANDERINGS (Loconeal). COUNTRY CLUB WIVES has also been optioned as a television series by Insight Productions out of Toronto, Canada.
A freelance writer for over 30 years, Sandra has written corporate profiles and technical articles for clients such as Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Ohio Health, Merrill Lynch, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Association of American Medical Colleges and publications such as Selling Power, Creativity, ASRT Scanner, Optical Technology, B’nai B’rith magazine, Currents and AAA Today. Additionally she has created Web content for AOL CityGuide, Strategic Edge, worth.com and others. Along with rewriting and editing books on medical and business topics, she prepares newsletters and assists in the writing and publication of magazines covering a variety of heathcare and business issues.
In the past, a major aspect of her work had been on the Vietnam protests and their aftereffects. Her nonfiction title, WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWER CHILDREN GONE? (University Press of Mississippi) delves into all facets of the Vietnam era, from tracking the student protest and conservative movements to comparing the controversy surrounding Vietnam and the Middle East. Her novel, THE PIPE DREAMERS (Olmstead, reissued 2019 by Hydra) is a fictional exploration of the late ’60s/early 70s, mostly set in the small college town of Hampton, Ohio. She has also written on this topic for the VVA Veteran, Ohio State Alumni Magazine, People and many other publications. More information can be found on http://www.booksaboutthe60s.com.
Other bylines and credits include People, YM, Entertainment Weekly, Fiction Writer, Woman’s World, Parenting, The World and I, Coast to Coast, USA Weekend, Chicago Tribune, as well as travel articles, promotional materials and advertorials. A former teacher of adult nonfiction at Long Ridge Writers’ Group/Institute for Children’s Literature, she lectures frequently on writing, the ’60s and her books.
Along with being selected for residencies and fellowships at the Mary Anderson Center in Mt. St. Francis, Indiana; the Vermont Writers Studio in Johnston; and receiving grants from the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) and the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas as well as certification from the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) Sandra is a longtime member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). She lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Susan Guy
Susan M. Guy was born and raised in Jefferson County, Ohio. Following in the footsteps of her father, a retired Wintersville police captain, Susan served as the first female police officer on the Cross Creek Township Police Department for fifteen years, acheiveing the rank of sergeant. Since 1994, she has been employed by the State of Ohio as a correctional officer.
She is a member of the Fort Steuben Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and is the public relations director for the Tri State Writers Society. She credits the Tri State Writers Society and its president, author Karina Garrison, for asking her to write a short story on prostitution in Steubenville. The story took on a life of its own, as the urge to dig for more information took over. The result is this book, Mobsters, Madams & Murder in Steubenville, Ohio (The Story of Little Chicago).