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.
Brian Michael Murphy
Brian Michael Murphy is the author of We the Dead: Preserving Data at the End of the World, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2022. He is Dean of the College at Bennington College, Managing and Nonfiction Editor of Northwest Review, and Director of the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop. His essays and poems have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Lapham’s Quarterly, Kenyon Review, Media-N, Narrative, and in Italian translation in Ácoma. A Fulbright Scholar, his work has also been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Vermont Arts Council, and the Ohio Arts Council. He is a founding board member of Outpost, a residency for BIPOC writers from the U.S. and Latin America. Learn more here: https://www.brianmichaelmurphy.com/
Greg Murray
In case you couldn’t tell, Greg loves animals, especially dogs. He is a published and award winning animal photographer and advocate living in the Cleveland, Ohio area with his wife Kristen and their two rescue dogs, Leo and Kensie. Greg is best known for the “Peanut Butter Dogs” book which depicts the hilarity of dogs enjoying, you guessed it, peanut butter. He has been featured by Today, Huffington Post, Elle, People and more. Greg is dedicated to animal rescue, adoption and pit bull terrier advocacy. Born and raised in Lakewood, Ohio, Greg spent 10 yrs working in the corporate world before becoming a starting his own business in 2014 and becoming a full-time photographer focusing on animals.
Theofania Music
Theofania Music is a classically trained lifetime pianist and composer since the age of four. As a lifelong writer and photographer, her photography and vulnerable poetry have only privately accompanied her compositions until now!
Theofania’s lifetime of manuscripts, prints, and compositions thus far, made for an idea of this compilation of poetry and photography.…
Read MoreTheofania Music is a classically trained lifetime pianist and composer since the age of four. As a lifelong writer and photographer, her photography and vulnerable poetry have only privately accompanied her compositions until now!
Theofania’s lifetime of manuscripts, prints, and compositions thus far, made for an idea of this compilation of poetry and photography. She encompasses a commitment to tell the story through light and sound, and to awaken and evoke feelings and thoughts to the listener and reader.
Theofania Music’s life’s work is transforming light and sound with a hope to connect humanity with nature. She has decades of experience creating a unique individual genre of “Raw-Piano”. Theofania Music has released five albums and three singles… all available on various musical platforms. Her single Perfect Geometry is reaching far beyond her expectations.
She is a gallery solo artist who brings a unique journey to the public, exhibiting her photography and music. A Vinyasa, Hatha, and Yin Yoga practitioner and instructor, Theofania believes that the journey of music, art, and literature runs through us all in mind, body, and soul. Theofania is currently recording new albums to be released while fine-tuning her composed classical full-length musical Symphony. Her composing continues, and her writings continue as a life’s-long novel is in the works.
Feel free to connect to Theofania Music at http://www.theofaniamusic.com @theofaniamusic on social media platforms.
“As long as I am able, I wish to share with all of humanity, the beauty in everything which I can hear and see.” – Theofania Music
“Everything is Connected” – Theofania Music
ENDURE MY COMPANY by THEOFANIA MUSIC
The complete first edition of poetry and photography from piano composer Theofania Music.
Have you ever desired to know what a composer thinks of at the time in which they compose a piece of music? Have you wondered what a music’s journey would be like from the moment a composer hears or sees a melody to when you hear the music? This is a glimpse into a composer’s life using poetry and photography.
Theofania Music walks alongside the reader… sharing emotional moments and imaginative awareness through each turned page. These poetic works evoke feelings of love and life, of beauty and sadness, of isolation and romance, of equations and time, of awakening and humanity, and so many more issues and passions.
The reader is able to walk with the composer through nature, allowing an incredible experience of poetical ideas and elusive thoughts, from constructing images through words and sound. At the same time, Theofania Music shows the reader to see the music of the prose as she weaves reflection and light in the form of photography.
A true journey of light and sound is experienced as composer Theofania Music opens a door to her world, hands you a cup of coffee or tea, and shares playful, philosophical ideas, extraordinary photography, and seriously vulnerable and intellectual poetry.
Deni Naffziger
Deni Naffziger is the author of Desire to Stay, poems (Stockport Flats Press, 2014), Strange Bodies, poems (Shadelandhouse Modern Press, 2023), and she co-authored Revenants: A Story of Many Lives, which was commissioned by the Houston-Hardin school district and supported with an Ohio Arts Council special projects grant. She edited Riverwind literary magazine, a national publication out of Hocking College, from 1986 – 2003. Naffziger, a Fulbright Scholar, is a retired professor (Hocking College, Ohio University). She currently serves as poet-in-residence at the Passion Works Collaborative Arts Studio in Athens, Ohio.
Dara Naraghi
Dara Naraghi was born in Iran and educated in the United States. His graphic novel trilogy Persia Blues has been praised by Publishers Weekly and the Midwest Book Review, has been nominated for awards by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and won a S.P.A.C.E. Prize for best graphic novel. His other notable graphic novels include the Terminator Salvation official movie prequel, and Witch & Wizard: Battle for Shadowland (both New York Times Bestsellers), as well as works for Image Comics, IDW Publishing, Dark Horse, and DC Comics. Dara is also a founding member of the comic book writers/artists collective known as PANEL, with whom he has produced 20 volumes of their comics anthology. Dara lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, daughter, and the world’s sweetest hound dog. Visit him online at http://www.daranaraghi.com/
Samuel Narh
Samuel Narh is an award-winning children’s book author. His books, A Kite for Melia and Milko, were created with co-author Freda Narh. He enjoys painting pictures with words using his stories, which are meant to touch and reach people across the world. Learn more at: https://www.samuelnarh.com/
Elizabeth Neal
Elizabeth Neal is a writer, editor, and digital strategist who lives in Columbus, OH, with her husband, daughter, and two rescue mutts.
Paula Johnson Neal
Paula Johnson Neal is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in early childhood development. Prior to becoming a published children’s author in 2019, she was a preschool administrator for 25 years. Based on her direct observation of young children exhibiting actual or precursors behaviors to bullying, Paula has set out on a mission to create fun and educational children’s books to teach kindness and self-regulatory skills. Paula’s first award winning book is titled I’M GONNA HAVE A GOOD DAY! The sequel, BREATHE, GABBY, BREATHE is a roller coaster of BIG emotions and usage of a breathing strategy to grow the main character and her readers. To learn more about Paula and her books, please visit her website at http://www.PaulaJohnsonNeal.com.
Marilyn Nelson
Marilyn Nelson is the author of many award-winning books, including Carver: A Life in Poems, which was a National Book Award finalist, a Newbery Honor Book, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book and received the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. She is also the author of A Wreath for Emmett Till, which garnered the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, a Coretta Scott King Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor. She lives in Connecticut. https://marilyn-nelson.com/