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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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Aileen Stewart

Aileen Stewart is the award winning author of the Fern Valley Series which includes Fern Valley, Return to Fern Valley, and Cooking in Fern Valley, as well as the new Quack and Daisy Picture Book Series, a public speaker, amateur photographer, a blogger, and SCBWI member. In addition, she hosts writing workshops for children in first to sixth grade, offers library and school visits, and speaks at events.…Read More

Leah Stewart

Leah Stewart is the author of the novels Body of a Girl, The Myth of You and Me, Husband and Wife, The History of Us, and The New Neighbor. The daughter of an Air Force officer and an elementary school teacher, she lived as a child in Virginia, Idaho, England, Kansas, and Virginia again. She went to high school in Clovis, New Mexico (a town featured in her second novel, The Myth of You and Me), college at Vanderbilt University, and graduate school at the University of Michigan. Since then, she has lived in Boston and Chapel Hill and held visiting writer positions at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee; Vanderbilt University; and Murray State University in Kentucky. Now a professor at the University of Cincinnati, she lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two children. In 2010, she was the recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship and in 2014 the recipient of a Sachs Fund Prize, given for contributions to Cincinnati arts and culture. Her fourth novel, The History of Us, which is set in Cincinnati, is on the Choose to Read Ohio list for 2015–16. For more, go to leahstewart.com

Mary Stockwell

Dr. Mary Stockwell is a writer who has lived most of her life in the twelve-mile-by-twelve-mile square reserve carved out by Anthony Wayne near the mouth of the Maumee River in the Treaty of Greeneville. Her latest book Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America (Yale University Press, 2018) brings to life the man behind the myth of Mad Anthony. She got her love of history from her father who was proud of his Irish heritage and who took his children along remnants of 19^th century canals in Ohio reminding them that their ancestors came to this country to build them and for the freedom and opportunity that America promised. She got her love of storytelling from her mother who was an actress, director, acting teacher, and prize-winning poet.

After completing her Ph.D. in American history at the University of Toledo, where she was the last student of W. Eugene Hollon, the noted historian of the American West, she worked as a writer at Detroit Edison’s Fermi II Nuclear Power Plant. The experience taught her how people make decisions in the real world. These insights helped her become a better writer.

In 1996, she was hired as the American History Professor at Lourdes University, and in 2001, she became the Chair of its Department of History, Political Science, and Geography. She won the Faculty Excellence Award for her superior teaching three times at Lourdes University and was nominated by her institution for national teaching awards. She said goodbye to her teaching and administrative career in 2012 to become a full-time writer and to accept the Earhart Foundation Fellowship at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan. She was also awarded a Gilder-Lehrman Fellowship to study at the New York Public Library.

Mary Stockwell is the author of The Other Trail of Tears: The Removal of the Ohio Indians (Westholme, 2015), a finalist for the Ohio Library Association’s Best Book on Ohio Award in 2016. She has also written history books used by young people throughout the United States including The Ohio Adventure, A Journey through Maine, and Massachusetts, Our Home, the 2005 winner of the Golden Lamp Award from the Association of Educational Publishers for Best Book, as well as The American Story: Perspectives and Encounters to 1865, a college level textbook used by students around the world. She is the author of Woodrow Wilson: The Last Romantic in the First Men: America’s Presidents Series, which has been nominated for the 2018 Dartmouth Medal. Her essays on George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt have appeared in major scholarly studies of these presidents. She has written for the website of George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate. Stockwell’s Interrupted Odyssey: Ulysses S. Grant and the American Indians, the first complete study of Grant’s Indian policy, was published by the Southern Illinois University Press in September 2018.

Frances Smith Strickland

Frances Smith Strickland brings to The Little Girl Who Grew Up To Be Governor the perspective of an educational psychologist who believes that the clues to meaningful life work are found in a person’s early childhood traits. Frances was born and reared on a farm in Simpsonville, Kentucky. She received a B.S. degree in education from Murray State University, a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from the University of Colorado, and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Kentucky. …Read More

Frances was born and reared on a farm in Simpsonville, Kentucky. She received a B.S. degree in education from Murray State University, a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from the University of Colorado, and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Kentucky. Prior to writing this book, she authored a screening test for children entering kindergarten. Most of her professional life has been spent in public education where she tried to help children with learning problems succeed in the learning environment.

Frances married a fellow psychologist, Ted Strickland, and moved to Ohio. When he entered politics, she left her field of education for a time, and became first Chief-of-Staff. After 12 years in the Congress, Ted was elected as Governor of Ohio and Frances became First Lady. In this role, her attention and energy was focused on children and families. She also worked with non-profits to broaden the scope of education by initiating the Governor’s Institute on Creativity and Innovation in Public Education.

The first edition of The Little Girl Who Grew Up To Be Governor was published in 1991. Frances wanted to document for the children of Kentucky—especially the girls—that women make wonderful leaders, and that they start out in life just like most little girls do. She wanted them to know that women can accomplish big dreams and how one woman—against all odds— made that happen. Thirty years later, as a resident of Ohio, she revised the book to explain in developmentally appropriate language more detail about how the political process works and the important role of government in improving the lives of everyone than was true in the original publication.

Now retired, Frances is focused on joining with others who are concerned that the mood of our country has shifted dangerously away from the collective good and community well-being. Using simple stories, she wants this read-aloud book to remind children that while times and circumstances always change, the need to treat each other fairly and to share never changes.

Tracy Subisak

Tracy Subisak is the Taiwanese and Polish American author-illustrator of award-winning Jenny Mei Is Sad. She has also illustrated many books, including: This Book Is Not For You!, by Shannon Hale, and Amah Faraway, by Margaret Chiu Greanais. Tracy lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, her dog Lala, and many, many plants.…Read More

Sam Subity

Sam Subity loves writing stories that explore the magic and wonder of being a kid and is thrilled to share his writing with readers everywhere—both the young in age and the young at heart. When he’s not writing, you might find him running the trails of northern California where the endless, winding miles past fog and ocean inspire stories of adventure and mystery. Or he might be mowing his lawn. Because that’s what adults sometimes have to do. But in either case, Sam is very likely imagining himself fighting mythical creatures or at the prow of a dragon ship feeling the wind and sea spray on his face alongside his own Viking queen and their two Vikelets. His greatest hope is that in reading his books, you too may be transported to another place where, for a little while, you can exchange the ordinary for the extraordinary. https://www.samsubity.com

Joe Sutphin

Joe Sutphin is an illustrator and cartoonist of books for young readers. His work includes the Eisner Award winning Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, based on the beloved book by Richard Adams, as well as the re-envisioned, illustrated classics Little Pilgrim’s Progress and Little Christmas Carol. Joe lives in Central Ohio with his wife Gina and five amazing cats.…

Nita Sweeney

Nita Sweeney is the bestselling wellness author of the award-winning running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving. Her third book, Make Every Move a Meditation was featured in The Wall Street Journal. Her most recent book, A Daily Dose of Now: 365 Mindfulness Meditation Practices for Living in the Moment, was released in fall of 2023. A mindfulness coach, certified meditation leader and mindfulness teacher, mental health advocate, ultramarathoner, retired attorney, and former assistant to writing practice originator Natalie Goldberg, Nita founded the groups Mind, Mood, and Movement to support well-being through meditation, exercise, and writing practice; and The Writer’s Mind, to share using writing practice to produce publishable work. For twenty years, Nita published the central Ohio writing resource, Write Now Columbus. She lives in central Ohio with her husband, Ed, and their yellow Labrador retriever, Scarlet.

Download your free copy of Nita’s eBook, Three Tools for a Happier, Healthier Mind, or the infographic, Meditation Myths, on Nita’s website.

Barney Taxel

Barney Taxel has lived, photographed, taught, and lectured in Cleveland, Ohio, since 1967, when he moved there from New York City, where he was born and raised. In addition to his award winning career as a commercial photographer, Taxel has several photography books to his credit, including The Lake View Cemetery: Photographs From Cleveland’s Historic Landmark, Cleveland’s West Side Market: 100 Years and Still Cooking, and Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens.…Read More

Cindy Thomson

Known for the inspirational Celtic theme employed in most of her books, Cindy Thomson is the author of six novels and three non-fiction books, including her newest Celtic Son. A genealogy enthusiast, she writes from her home in Ohio where she lives with her husband Tom near their three grown sons and their families. Visit her online at www.cindyswriting.comRead More

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