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.
For more information about our collection and programming for authors, please click on the "Authors" main tab above.
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Michael J. Rosen
In his various roles, Michael has created more than 150 books over a forty- year career. His wide range of books for young readers range from Chanukah Lights, a poetic collaboration with pop-up master Robert Sabuda (Candlewick) to Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family’s Farm (Darby Creek/Lerner), a 144-page oral history of an Ohio farm family that he photo-chronicled and supplemented with sidebars of local- and natural history.
Many of his books engage his degree in zoology, medical-school training, and his passion for nature and the creatures who share this world. For the last 22 years, he’s lived on 100 forested acres in the foothills of the Appalachians, east of Columbus, Ohio, where he spent most of his life. Workman Publishing released three volumes of heavily researched writing: his comprehensive, go-to-handbook, My Dog! A Kids’ Guide to Keeping a Happy, Healthy Dog; his eco-wise guide to freshwater fishing, Kids’ Book of Fishing; and The 60-Second Encyclopedia, a witty fact- and math-packed compendium of minute-measurements that come from nearly every subject area. Candlewick published four volumes of jos haiku with natural-history endnotes on birds, on cats, on dogs, and on horses. His latest book from Doubleday, In the Quiet, NOISY Woods, is a cumulative sound narrative of eight creatures who share his acres.
Fifteen of his books including SPEAK!, Down to Earth, and The Greatest Table (Harcourt), and Home (HarperCollins) were created with the generosity of hundreds of the country’s best-known illustrators, photographers, authors, and cartoonists as creative philanthropy. Along with several adult books, profits from these collections benefitted Share Our Strength’s work to end childhood hunger and a granting program Rosen created, The Company of Animals Fund, that awarded over $375,000 to 100 animal-welfare organizations.
Among the many distinguished citations his work have received are:
• The Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries for Chanukah Lights. (Candlewick)
• The inaugural Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance Once Upon a World Book Award for the best children’s book that promotes diversity and tolerance for A School for Pompey Walker. (Harcourt) This is a book-length, first-person narrative based on the true story of a man who repeatedly sold himself into and escaped from slavery in order to build a school for children in Ohio.
• The Ohioana Library Career Citation awarded by the state of Ohio.
• The National Jewish Book Award for Elijah’s Angel, a picture book based on Rosen’s friendship with the renowned folk artist Elijah Pierce.
• Share Our Strength’s first lifetime achievement away for his creative and devotion to ending childhood hunger in America.
Several of his books have been Junior Library Guild featured selections and Scholastic Book Club picks, while others have been featured as “Best Books of the Year” by Kirkus, CCBC, Bank Street Books, Hungry Mind Review, Essence, The Today Show, The Horn Book, Miami Herald, and the ASPCA. His works have been adapted as a PBS documentary (“Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family Farm”); a family opera (composer Robert Kapilow’s “Elijah’s Angel”); and a short film (director Christopher Rowley’s “The Remembering Movies”).
Among his recent books are Sailing the Unknown: Around the World with Captain Cook, a free-verse diary based on the life of a stowaway who sailed aboard the ship Endeavor for over a thousand days. (Creative Editions)
• Mind-Boggling Numbers (Millbrook/Lerner). Ms. Mary Math unpacks a dozen doozies in a humorous, arithmetic ramp through such unlikely story problems as how long would it take to hike to the moon, how many earthworms are in an acre, and how long would it take someone to mow the lawn if everyone on Earth had the same size yard.
• Outrageous Animal Adaptations (Twenty-first Century Books/Lerner), a middle-grade guide to two dozen profiles of creatures who occupy the most extreme, hazardous, and competitive niches on the planet.
• The Tale of Rescue (Candlewick), a short novel about a cattle dog who heroically saves a family lost in an Ohio blizzard—“a lovely prose-poem adventure,” wrote Publishers’ Weekly in a starred review.
Michael has been active in professional development, writers’ residencies, curriculum development, and creative-writing workshops with readers, writers, and teachers for over 40 years, including 20 years as program director of the Thurber House, a literary center in Columbus, Ohio. His fifth and sixth collection of Thurber’s uncollected and unpublished works were published in conjunction with the humorist’s 125th birthday: Collected Fables (HarperCollins) and A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber (Ohio State University Press).
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
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.
Blythe Russo
Blythe Russo is an author-illustrator currently living just outside Cincinnati, Ohio. When she’s not making books, you can find her sewing, building puppets, or in the kitchen on a never-ending quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Visit her at https://www.blytherussoillustration.com/
Chuck Salmons
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Chuck Salmons is a poet and has served as part of leadership for the Ohio Poetry Association for more than a decade. His poems have appeared in several journals and anthologies, including Pudding Magazine; Evening Street Review; The Ekphrastic Review; Common Threads; The Fib Review; Shot Glass Journal; Everything Stops and Listens; Poets to Come: A Poetry Anthology, in honor of Walt Whitman’s bicentennial; and I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices. His chapbook, Stargazer Suite, was released in December 2016 and is available from 11th Hour Press. His second chapbook, Patch Job, was published by NightBallet Press in 2017.
He won the 2011 William Redding Memorial Poetry Contest, sponsored by The Poetry Forum of Columbus, has garnered awards from Ohio Poetry Day, and is a recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for his poetry. Chuck regularly gives readings throughout Ohio, both solo and as part of the poetry trio Concrete Wink, including the Columbus Arts Festival, the Winter Solstice Poetry Reading in Yellow Springs, and the Sun & Moon Poetry Festival.
Chuck leads workshops for various groups and audiences. And his poetry has been exhibited artistically in several places, including three features for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources “Art in the Lobby” program and in the 2021 After Hours exhibition at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus.
Chuck has worked in a variety of fields, including construction, education, and retail. He loves science, which often influences his poems, and works as Communications Manager at the Ohio Geological Survey. Learn more at his website: chucksalmons.com.
Yolonda Tonette Sanders
Ohio native Yolonda Tonette Sanders is an Essence magazine bestselling author with six novels to her credit, including Shadow of Death. She is also the founder and CEO of Yo Productions, LLC, a theatrical entertainment and literary services company that expanded its repertoire in 2015 to include publishing. A graduate of Capital University and later The Ohio State University, Yolonda once worked for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office until she quit in 2004 to focus more on writing. It’s a move that she has never regretted. As a writer, Yolonda enjoys the challenge of developing and completing projects that interest and inspire readers. As a speaker, she has been invited to address audiences across the country regarding various topics and appreciates the opportunities she has to connect with people from all walks of life. As a business owner, Yolonda seeks to help other writers develop and perfect their works. In addition to writing, Yolonda likes watching movies, exercising, and spending time with her family. Her favorite people on earth are her husband, David, and her two teenage children, Tre and Tia.
Craig Sanders
Craig Sanders is an author, educator and historian living with his wife Mary Ann Whitley in University Heights, Ohio. He is the author of six books focusing on railroad history. His most recent book, Cleveland Mainline Railroads, was published in February 2014 by Arcadia Publishing. Arcadia also published three others books that he wrote: Canton Area Railroads (2009), Mattoon and Charleston Area Railroads (2008) and Akron Railroads (2007). He is the author two books published by Indiana University Press: Amtrak in the Heartland (2006) and Limited Locals, and Expresses in Indiana, 1838-1971 (2003).
He is a frequent contributor to Trains magazine and is president of the Akron Railroad Club. Aside from writing, he enjoys traveling and photography.
He is a frequent contributor of feature articles to Trains magazine and is president of the Akron Railroad Club. He is the webmaster of the ARRC website, http: akronrrclub.wordpress.com/ which presents news, features and photographs about railroad and public transportation operations in Ohio and surrounding states.
Sanders has been a journalist and taught journalism, public relations and mass communications for more than 30 years. He worked as a reporter and copy editor at daily newspapers in Mattoon, Illinois; Bloomington, Indiana; Evansville, Indiana; and Indianapolis. His essays on the life in higher education and issues in journalism appear frequently on his LinkedIn page.
He has taught at Cleveland State University, Kent State University, John Carroll University, Penn State University, Indiana University and the University of Southern Indiana. He earned a Ph.D. in mass communications and an M.A. in journalism from Indiana University, an M.A. in political studies from Sangamon State University (now University of Illinois-Springfield), and a B.A. in history and political science from Eastern Illinois University. For more information about Sanders, check out his website at csanders429.wordpress.com
Kathy Schulz
Kathy Schulz is a retired college librarian. A native Ohioan, she has deep roots in the state and degrees from three of its universities. She lived at two major Underground Railroad junctions and wants Americans to know that the Underground Railroad was mostly in Ohio and mostly above ground—not in tunnels! Kathy and her husband currently live in Santa Fe NM, where she stays busy with friends, hobbies, and grandchildren. Learn more about Kathy at her website: https://undergroundrailroadohio.com/
Jillian Scudder
Dr. Jillian Scudder is an astrophysicist and associate professor of Physics & Astronomy at Oberlin College, Ohio. Her previous book was Astroquizzical: A Beginner’s Journey Through the Cosmos (Icon Books, 2019), and her writing has appeared in Forbes, Quartz, Medium, and The Conversation. Learn more at: https://www.jillianscudder.com/.
Janet Shailer
From Janet: “I was born & raised in Grove City, Ohio, and graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1971 with a degree in Radio/TV/Film and a minor in journalism. Early in my career I worked as a broadcast engineer for two NBC-affiliated TV stations and Warner Cable’s Qube cable TV network. I was a contributing editor of Television Broadcast magazine and later editor of the Southwest Messenger newspaper in Columbus. I am the author of three non-fiction history books and one historical fiction/murder mystery that takes place in Steubenville, OH.”