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.
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Liz Deskins
Liz Deskins was a school librarian for thirty years, teaching at the elementary, high school, and college levels and is now an adjunct for Kent State University. She also serves as Curriculum Editor for the School Library Connection reVIEWS+ online journal, which helps to fuel her passion for writing on topics of interest to school librarians. Her first book collaboration with Christina Dorr was Linking Picture Book Biographies to National Content Standards: 200+ Lives to Explore (Libraries Unlimited 2015). Her newest book is LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens: Providing a Window for All (ALA publications 2018). She just finished a third book for ALA, which will be published this fall.
Jen Devon
Jen Devon writes cinematic contemporary romances about complicated, imperfect people finding their perfect match.A former biology academic and lecturer, she currently works in the tech industry and dreams of writing full-time. She’s an avid gardener, photographer, and boardgamer, a thrift store enthusiast and unapologetic nerd. She’s a mom of five (three kids, two rescue mutts) and lives in central Ohio with her engineer husband. https://jendevon.com/
Srirupa Dhar
Srirupa Dhar is Indian by birth and has been living in the United States since 1998. She completed her M.A. and M.Phil. from University of Calcutta, India. She has a third Master’s degree in English with Technical Writing Certification from University of Alabama in Huntsville, U.S.A. Srirupa taught as a young college lecturer in Calcutta, West Bengal and as a junior high school teacher in Columbus, Ohio. She has also worked as an interpreter in Columbus. She is a voracious reader and takes an avid delight in many forms of art. Currently, she is a writer, primarily of fiction. Her debut novel called “For A Drop Of Rice-Water” has recently been published by a traditional publishing house. Some of her short stories have been published in “The Bangalore Review”, “The Seattle Star”, “The Statesman” and “Café Dissensus.” One of her short stories has been published in “Muffled Moans Unleashed”, an anthology on child abuse and sexual violence. Some of her nonfictional works have appeared in collections of essays. One of her distinguished nonfictional articles called “Self-realization of Women through Binaries in Chokher Bali and Ghare Baire” has been published in “Reading Rabindranath: The Myriad Shades of a Genius.” Occasionally, Srirupa acts in plays in Columbus. She is part of an amateur dramatic society.
Raffaele Di Lallo
Raffaele Di Lallo has been growing houseplants for over 30 years, and it all started in grade school as a way to clean the air from his father’s smoking habit. It quickly became an obsession, and he con- tinues to grow a vast array of plants both indoors and out. In 2017, he received a phone call from a friend who suggested that he start a blog, which Raffaele promptly did the next day. There was no looking back, and his Ohio Tropics houseplant care website quickly made it to the top 10 house- plant care blogs on the internet, according to Feedspot. The blog initially provided information on how to achieve a tropical flair to gardens in cold-weather areas like Ohio. Later on, its main emphasis became houseplant care, which remains the sole focus to this day.Raffaele received his BS in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 2000. The thinking and questioning skills he developed in his studies, combined with his passion for growing plants, have led him to become a“plant solver.” You can source Raffaele’s expertise via his virtual and in-person, houseplant consultation business where he helps people work through their house- plant challenges. Contact Raffaele directly through his Ohio Tropics website for any inquiries, or message him on Instagram (@ohiotropics). Raffaele received his Certificate of Home Horticulture from Oregon State University as a part of their Master Gardener program, completed the Green Gardener program at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, is a member of the American Orchid Society as well as Garden Communicators International, and worked part-time as a freelance writer for the popular Gardening Know How website. He also self-published a succinct but very popular guide to orchid care, Moth Orchid Mastery.
Tracey Dils
Tracey Dils is the author of more than 50 books for young readers in a variety of genres: picture books, middle grade fiction and nonfiction, and biography. Tracey has been awarded multiple awards, including the Parent’s Choice Award and the Ohioana Award in Children’s Literature. She has held a number of high-level editorial positions, including publisher for McGraw-Hill Children’s Publishing, marketing director for Ohio State University Press, and editor-in-chief for Willowisp Press. Tracey has served as an expert writing consultant for various publishing endeavors, including Guideposts for Kids, several elementary and college textbook companies, and as a creative writing specialist for Thurber House.
Dils considers inspiring beginning writers as her most important work. She has taught writing for children at the university level and through correspondence schools across the country. She is a featured speaker at writers’ conferences and workshops. In addition to her work with aspiring adult writers, Dils has taught writing to children in a number of settings and is a frequent guest author in elementary and middle schools.
Tracey graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. She lives with her husband, Richard Herrold, in Columbus, Ohio.
Kim Dinan
Kim Dinan is a freelance writer and blogger, whose travel blog, So Many Places, was selected by USA Today as one of the 2014 Best Hiking and Outdoor Travel blogs. Her writing has appeared in OnTrak Magazine and Northwest Travel Magazine, among others, and she was on a speaking tour for Backpacker Magazine. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband and their young daughter. Her memoir, The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and A Life-Changing Journey Around the World, will be published by Sourcebooks in April 2017.
Jane Dippold
A lifelong Ohioan, Jane Dippold is the illustrator of the 2015-16 Choose to Read Ohio picture book choice Farmers Market Day, a story about an enthusiastic (and slightly clumsy) little girl searching for the perfect treat at the market. The watercolor and pencil illustrations for Farmerʼs Market Day set in a colorful, crowded farmers market, were inspired by many visits to historic Findlay Market in Cincinnati where she lived for over 15 years.
From a young age, Jane loved art. Illustrations she saw in Cricket Magazine and the Childcraft series of books in her childhood home, as well as cartoons and newspaper comic strips sparked her interest. Graduating from Miami University with a Fine Arts degree, she worked as an artist for a greeting card company. For the past 20 years, Jane has been illustrating for children’s books, children’s magazines and children’s educational publishing. Living with her husband and three children in Coldwater, Ohio, Jane is currently working on a few children’s stories of her own. In addition, she creates fine art collage paintings of the beautiful farm landscapes that surround her in rural Mercer County. More art and information can be found at her website: janedippold.com
Athena Dixon
Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. Her work is included in the anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol.2: Black Girl Magic and her craft work appears in Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction. Athena is an alumna of VONA, Callaloo, and Tin House and has received a prose fellowship from The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Athena now resides in Philadelphia.
Meredith Doench
Meredith Doench is the author of the Luce Hansen thriller series and Whereabouts Unknown. Her writing has also appeared in many literary journals. She is a board member of Mystery Writers of America, Midwest Chapter, and is a senior lecturer of creative writing, literature, and composition at the University of Dayton in Ohio. For more information about this author and to view book purchase information, visit http://www.meredithdoench.com