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.
- You are searching within category(ies): Juvenile
Dave Szalay
Dave Szalay is an award winning illustrator, working author, and college professor. Dave, his wife, and three cats live along a steam that runs through the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. They have two adult sons and a granddaughter. http://www.daveszalay.com
Christine Taylor-Butler
A native of Cleveland Ohio, Christine Taylor-Butler is the author of more than eighty books and short stories for children including Rosa Parks (Scholastic), the award winning “Sacred Mountain: Everest” (Lee and Low), and a middle grade science fiction adventure series The Lost Tribes (Move Books). Although she’s always wanted to be a writer, Christine was encouraged by her math teacher to try her hand at engineering. As a result, and always an overachiever, Christine holds dual degrees in Civil Engineering and Art & Design from MIT. Still the tug to write was too great. Now she’s known as much for her science writing as her fiction. To learn more visit:
Connie Remlinger Trounstine
Connie Remlinger Trounstine grew up in Delphos, Ohio and is a graduate of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. She worked as an editorial assistant for Writer’s Market in Cincinnati until joining The Kentucky Post, a Scripps Howard newspaper, where she was a reporter for 29 years. She is the author of the children’s chapter book The Worst Christmas Ever and Fingerprints on the Table, a picture book about a table in the White House used to sign peace treaties. Her book The Phantom Five is a book for middle-grade students about life at home during World War II. She lives in Cincinnati.
Frank Tupta
FRANK TUPTA (TUP like UP) grew up in a haunted house in Cleveland. His favorite holiday is Halloween. He still dresses up every year. He currently lives in Peninsula, Ohio surrounded by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park with his wife, children’s book author + illustrator Lindsay Ward, their three boys, and Sally, a rambunctious pit-bulllab mix who keeps things interesting by chasing coyotes in their backyard. Most days you can find Frank writing, walking Sally with his family, driving around on his tractor, or co-running http://www.critterlit.com with his wife, a website offering free critiques and advice for up-and-coming authors and illustrators.
Dana Ullom-Vucelich
Dana Ullom-Vucelich’s study of child development and gerontology nourished a deep appreciation for the remarkability of both little people and big people. She has benefited from a career highlighting vibrancy in aging. Her #1 qualifier to write this book was growing up close to her four grandparents, two greats and watching her parents morph into grandparents. These GRANDS offered acceptance, encouragement, compassion, and support. Her very deepest inspiration for her first book has been the journey of her mom’s walk with Alzheimer’s and her fiercest commitment to honor intergenerational relationships and inspire the memory makers and the memory keepers.
Suzy Ultman
Suzy Ultman has been creating toys and books for family and friends since childhood. A born storyteller, Suzy is an illustrator, product designer, toy creator, and bookmaker of sophisticated and simple objects that inspire and delight. Suzy’s signature products center connection, community, and finding your place within our global family. When she isn’t in her studio folding paper, designing textiles, or creating toys, she can be found strolling through antique shops, finding treasures at flea markets, and communing with nature. She’s nested with her husband and three sons in their cozy home in Ohio.
Thrity Umrigar
Thrity Umrigar is the bestselling author of nine previous novels, including Honor, which was a Reese’s Book Club Pick, as well as three picture books and a memoir. Her books have been published in over fifteen countries and in several languages. A former journalist, she has contributed to The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and other newspapers. She is a recipient of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, and winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, the Seth Rosenberg prize and a Lambda Literary award. She is currently a Distinguished University Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University. https://umrigar.com/
Carmella Van Vleet
Carmella Van Vleet is a former teacher who has been a full-time author for over 20 years. She’s the author of over a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, for kids of all ages. Her debut middle grade novel, Eliza Bing Is (Not) A Big Fat Quitter, received the Christopher Award and was featured on multiple state award lists, including Choose to Read Ohio. And her recent middle grade, Nothing Is Little, was a 2023 Ohioana Book Award finalist. She also co-authored the picture book To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space (co-authored with astronaut Kathy Sullivan). Carmella lives in Columbus, Ohio. She can be found online at: https://carmellavanvleet.com/.
Christina Wald
Christina Wald is a product designer and illustrator in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has illustrated over 50 picture books and is obsessed with urban sketching and travel.
She started out illustrating professionally for games including the Star Wars role playing game series, Middle Earth: Wizards, A Lord of the Rings collectable card game, Dragon Magazine, BattleTech, Dune and many others.
One of her latest books, Cao Chong Weighs and Elephant by Songju Ma Daemicke, recently was given an NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book Award, included on the NSTA Best STEM Books list for 2018, and recieved a Mathical Award. Other recent highlights include: Paws, Hoofs, and Wings Animal Heroes of the San Diego Zoo by Shari Lyon, the official children’s book to celebrate the zoo’s 2016 centennial, Camas and Sage: A Story of Bison Life on the Prairie by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent for the American Prairie Reserve ; The Wild Life of Elk by Donna Love (A joint venture between the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the National Forest Service) and many others.
Many of her books are about animals and ecosystems and she often travels and consults with scientists for research.
She has done toy design development for National Geographic, Encyclopedia Britannica, and Discovery Kids. She even has done an occasional animation background and package art for GI Joe. She is currently developing a graphic novel.
She started urban sketching in 2011 and helps coordinate the Cincinnati chapter and is on the social media team of the international organization.
She graduated from the University of Cincinnati DAAP with a degree in Industrial Design and teaches illustration at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University.
Corrinne Walker
Corrinne Walker, a certified life coach, and motivational speaker helps individuals understand that life experiences that hurt do not always mean that they are wrong. That everyone has the power to choose to see difficulties as signs that a few battles need to take place, that there is a need to clear some personal obstacles, so some space can be created for answers, light, and love to enter their life.
Also Corrinne Walker is the writer of Corrinne Walker is out of this world part I and II, Lashonna Cargin Dealing with OCD Revised Edition, and Lashonna Cargin Dividived, Lashonna Cargin Dealing With OCD part I and II, Lashonna Cargin Dealing With OCD part I and II combined and last Adventures of Sneaky & Lashonna.
You can visit her website at https://walker-and-associate-life-coaching.business.site