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.
Ty Roth
I was born, raised, and have lived my entire life in and around Sandusky, Ohio, (yes, the Sandusky, Ohio, of Tommy Boy fame) along the coast of Lake Erie. Other than my college years, my actual home has always been within a mile or two of Erie’s shores. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine living anywhere else.
For both the good and the bad, twenty-six years in Catholic schools (as a student then as a teacher) and countless Sunday masses have gone a long way to form my person and now to inform my writing. As with my family and the Lake, I seem unable to wander from out of the shadow of the Church.
I am not what I “do.” I do many things. I refuse to allow my person to be defined by the occupation through which I earn a living and ensure medical care, but I love teaching. I can’t imagine a more exciting or inspiring place to spend my life than in a high school and with teenagers. There and among them, the past is still erasable, the present is bursting with first-time experiences, and a future full of wonders lies ahead. In fact, I don’t believe that anyone ever graduates from high school, not really. In our minds, we forever walk the halls of our alma mater, and our teenage ghost haunts us wherever we go.
So, I write novels—not because I have to (I don’t have voices clamoring inside my head—well, at least no more than anybody else) but because it enables me to teach lessons of life and literature to individuals in places far beyond the walls of my classroom. No matter how little or how much money I earn as a writer or how many or how few books I sell, when asked, “What do you do?” I will always say, “I am a teacher.”
Moriel Rothman-Zecher
Moriel Rothman-Zecher, an Israeli-American novelist and poet, is a 2018 National Book Foundation ‘5 Under 35’ Honoree, and is the recipient of a 2017 MacDowell Colony Fellowship in Literature. His writing has been published in the New York Times, the Paris Review’s “The Daily,”Haaretz, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. He lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with his wife, Kayla, and their daughter, Nahar. Read more at TheLefternWall.com and follow him on Twitter @Moriel_RZ.
Julie K. Rubini
Julie K. Rubini loves to share the incredible stories of individuals who made a difference in the world with younger readers. Her works include Virginia Hamilton: America’s Storyteller, which received a Kirkus starred review and listed on Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books, Outstanding Merit. Julie’s most recent project was serving as the editor for Virginia Hamilton: Five Novels, a collection published by the Library of America.Julie and her husband Brad established Claire’s Day, a children’s book festival in honor of their daughter.
Julie is the recipient of the Toledo Area Jefferson Award (2015), the YWCA Milestones Award (2016) and the University of Toledo Outstanding Alumna Award (2015). To learn more, visit http://www.julierubini.com or http://www.clairesday.org
Joel Rudiger
Joel Rudinger was born 1938 in Cleveland, OH and raised in Toledo, OH from 1945-1960. He left Ohio to study in Alaska and Iowa and returned to Ohio in 1966.
A graduate of the University of Alaska, the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop, and Bowling Green State University, Joel Rudinger taught at the Bowling Green State University–Firelands College in Huron, Ohio from 1967 to 2012. In addition to his fourth book of poetry, Symphonia Judaica: Jewish Symphony and Other Poems, he published First Edition: 40 Poems, Lovers and Celebrations, I Am the Hero of My Story, and the Inuit folk-based legend Sedna: Goddess of the Sea. He started the Cambric Press in 1971 and was editor-publisher of the Firelands Review and of the Cambric Poetry Projects. Income from sales and donations to the Firelands Review were transferred in 2013 to fund and endow the Rudinger Foundation Creative Arts Scholarship program.
Joel Rudinger has published numerous poems and stories in magazines such as the New York Quarterly, Colorado Review, Cornfield Review, The Heartlands Today, The Plough: North Coast Review, and New Waves. He has also illustrated several books published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He is currently a BGSU Professor emeritus and Poet Laureate of Huron, OH, and is working on a memoir of his early Alaskan years.
Clayton Ruminski
Clayton J. Ruminski is the Archival Specialist at Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware.
M. L. Ruscak
Born In 1982, a native to Lorain Ohio, Melisa grew up living with her grandparents Frances and James Lasure. She attended Clearview High School as well as Lorain County J.V.S. While in J.V.S she attended the Culinary Arts program graduating in 2001.
In 2011 near tragedy struck as Melisa’s health began to decline. By summer of 2011 she would need to use a cane to get around. Suffering a stroke she required a craniotomy where she suffered her second stroke. Leaving her with a partial impairment of her speech, and weakness on her right side. After surgery she would need to learn not only to walk again, but speak as well as recognize the alphabet.
In 2003 she welcomed the addition of her daughter Chyenne. Who inspired her to start to put her dreams to paper. A story she wrote after her daughter’s birth, although not published, became the stepping stone to everything else she would eventually write.
Two years later in the fall of 2013 after a divorce, she would meet the man who would push her not only to fight to regain her physical strength but to put her creative mind to work. No longer allowing her to dwell on what she could no longer do but what she could.
In December of 2014 they would marry. With determination Melisa would walk down the aisle without the need of a cane.
A year later she would begin to write “Of Lite and Darke” Dreaming to see this work through to publishing, even if she would need to publish it herself.
In 2016 she would see her dream come true. With her daughter as her editor “Of Lite and Darke” was born.
Philip Craig Russell
Over the last forty years, illustrator, artist, and graphic novelist Philip Craig Russell, also known as P. Craig Russell, or by the acronym he often signs under: PCR, has run the gamut in comics, illustrating everything from Batman, Star Wars, and Conan to a series of adaptations of classic operas, a Jungle Book series, and an ongoing series adapting the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde.…
Read MoreOver the last forty years, illustrator, artist, and graphic novelist Philip Craig Russell, also known as P. Craig Russell, or by the acronym he often signs under: PCR, has run the gamut in comics, illustrating everything from Batman, Star Wars, and Conan to a series of adaptations of classic operas, a Jungle Book series, and an ongoing series adapting the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde. Russell’s graphic novel adaptations of Neil Gaiman novels, including Sandman: The Dream Hunters and Coraline have received high acclaim. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. After establishing a name for himself at Marvel on Killraven and Dr. Strange, he went on to become one of the pioneers in opening new vistas in the field of graphic novels. Among his other works are the adaptations of operas by Mozart, The Magic Flute, Strauss, Salome, and Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung. Russell’s artwork has been noted for its lush line, attention to detail, and classical themes with a heavy influence from the Art Nouveau and Romantic fine art traditions. Russell was born in Wellsville, Ohio and is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in painting. He collects Fiestaware and currently makes his home in Kent, Ohio. View Russell’s artwork on his website, http://www.artofpcraigrussell.com/.
Mary Doria Russell
Widely praised for meticulous research, fine prose, and the compelling narrative drive of her stories, Mary Doria Russell is the award-winning author of six bestselling novels, including the science fiction classics The Sparrow and Children of God; the World War II thriller, A Thread of Grace; and a political romance set in 1921 Cairo called Dreamers of the Day. With her latest novels, Doc and Epitaph, Russell has redefined two towering figures of the American West: the lawman Wyatt Earp and the dental surgeon Doc Holliday. The daughter of a sheriff, Mary grew up with cops and guns but also holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan and taught anatomy at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry.
Blythe Russo
Blythe Russo is an author-illustrator currently living just outside Cincinnati, Ohio. When she’s not drawing, you can find her sewing, building puppets, or in the kitchen on a never-ending quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. https://www.blytherussoillustration.com/.
