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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Ellen Fritz
Ellen Fritz is a retired teacher and high school counselor. Over the years of teaching reading and English to students in grades seven through twelve before becoming a counselor, she had the great opportunity to discuss numerous favorite books with students and also took their recommendations for her own reading.
She finally found herself with the time to give life to the stories that have always been patiently waiting in her head for an audience. Ellen wrote Mira to appeal to those middle grade/teen readers that she found so inspiring through her career as an educator.
Kimberly Gabriel
Kimberly Gabriel started writing in fourth grade when she wrote, bound, and gave away books of terrible poetry to family and teachers as holiday gifts. Today she is an English teacher, who still squanders all free minutes to write and uses it as the best scapegoat for her laundry avoidance issues. When she is not teaching or writing, Kimberly is enjoying life with her husband, her three beautiful children, and a seriously beautiful boxer in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Every Stolen Breath is her debut novel and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.
Carmen Gabriel-Watson
INTRODUCTORY BIO: MY NAME IS CARMEN, AKA “LEGA”CEE”; to ‘Carry’ legs of Rare Breed out of Past Ancestry into…..” I AM WHO I AM & I AM WHO I BE !…. Into the Journey. I have raised two beautiful Intelligent girls, now women; out of that, four awesome grands I am proud of ! Currently, I reside in Saint George, SC with my second daughter. I was Born last of fourteen and bred in Toledo Ohio; Known for its automobile, Jeep and the Glass Capital of the world ; As a Writer and Author, I’ve recently published my first Inspirational book through my poetry, quotes, stories and testimonies, through the life we must live to bear Witness as “Truth Fluid” for the Soul, who believes every Closed window, has an open way out! There is a 2ND & 3RD book underway. As a Creative Writer, I enjoy utilizing my gift for Event planning, Funerals, weddings, graduations; as well as Art of any media and background in Stage Theater. A Multiple participant as 11th place Poetry finalist, public venues of Spoken word in DC, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. Completed coursework in Digital Graphics and Web Page Design, Ambassador to Heart & Stroke Association; obtained the High Level Bronze and Volunteer Ambassador awards. As a Two time Stroke Survivor, I am a Story !
Laura Gaddis
Laura (she/her) is an author/educator from Oxford, Ohio. Her memoir Mosaic (Unsolicited Press) delves into loss, motherhood, and parenting a child with disabilities. She has been published in Thin Air Magazine, 805 Lit + Art, Stonecoast Review, Brevity Blog, and elsewhere. Laura’s essay Well Meaning People was Pushcart Nominated. She has been awarded a teaching fellowship for the Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers’ Conference with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. More about Laura can be found at http://www.lauragaddis.com
Chris Garber
Chad Dotson writes about the Reds for Cincinnati Magazine and about baseball in general for ESPN.com. He is also the founder and managing editor of Redleg Nation, a popular site devoted to baseball and the Cincinnati Reds. A longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Chad lives in Virginia with his wife, Sabrina, and two children, Reagan and Casey.
Chris Garber serves as contributing editor and featured writer for Redleg Nation, where he has written about the Reds for more than a decade. Chris lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife Katie and their three children.
Dee Garretson
Dee writes middle grade, young adult and adult fiction under her own name and also writes for the Boxcar Children series under the original author’s name. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her family in a book-cluttered house surrounded by a semi-wild garden. Her two cats Piper and Poppy are her writing companions and the stars of Skype visits with book clubs. When Dee is not writing or reading, she is most likely watching old movies, cooking treats to go along with book reading or trying to learn to make jewelry.
David Lee Garrison
The poetry of David Lee Garrison has appeared widely in journals and anthologies, and two poems from his book Sweeping the Cemetery were read by Garrison Keillor on his national radio show, The Writer’s Almanac. The title poem from his Playing Bach in the DC Metro was featured by Poet Laureate Ted Kooser on his website, American Life in Poetry, and read on the BBC in London. He won the Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry Prize in 2009 and was named Ohio Poet of the Year in 2014. His most recent book is Light in the River (Dos Madres Press).
Donna B. Gawell
Donna Gawell is a genealogist, historian, and author of several published books and journal articles. She is a presenter on genealogy, travel, and family history writing for community organizations and church groups. Donna holds volunteer leadership roles with Samaritan’s Purse as a Relay Center Coordinator for Operation Christmas Child and is a Church Coordinator for International Friendships, Inc., a Christian outreach to international students at Ohio State University.
Donna earned a master’s degree in Speech Pathology and worked in the field of education for over thirty years. She lives in Westerville, Ohio with her husband Mark when not traveling to research her ancestral homelands in Europe and New England. Her website “DonnaGawell.com” allows her to reach out to readers with similar passions and interests.
Ross Gay
Ross Gay is the New York Times bestselling author of the essay collections The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy and four books of poetry. His Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and in 2022 was named an NEA Big Read title; and Be Holding won the 2021 PEN America Jean Stein Book Award. Gay is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project and has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He teaches at Indiana University. https://www.rossgay.net/
Dan Gearino
Dan Gearino is a lifelong comics reader with tastes that swing from the classic Legion of Super-Heroes to the work of Michel Rabagliati. As a business reporter for the Columbus Dispatch, he has won national recognition for his work. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and two daughters. Find him at http://www.dangearino.com.