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): Middle Grade
Doug Coates
Doug Coates is the author of two middle-grade books used in his engaging and interactive presentations about character and good sportsmanship. Pitching for Success: Character Lessons, the Joe Nuxhall Way, and Riley’s Winning Catch; Good Character Prevails depict situational examples of good character and sportsmanship. Please email the author at Doug@authordougcoates.com if you and your school are interested in an author visit. He will also send you a comp copy of each book to review if you’d like. In a change of genre, the author published his first picture book, Bobby Button Goes to School in the spring of 2022.
Jean Colebank
Jean is in her 31st year of teaching and loves to make the seemingly difficult concepts in math much easier to understand. Her children’s book, Sit Down Little Prince! A math story about Carl Friedrich Gauss gives readers a little story, a little history and one really, big math trick! She earned a master’s degree in Math Education from Bank Street Graduate School in New York City and a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from The University of Akron in Ohio. Jean is a mother, grandmother, avid golfer as well as a writer, editor, and consultant for McGraw-Hill, Scholastic, and other educational publishers.
Liz Coley
Liz Coley has been writing short and long fiction for teens and adults for more than ten years. Her short fiction has appeared in Cosmos Magazine and several speculative fiction anthologies: The Last Man, More Scary Kisses, and Strange Worlds. In 2011, she self-published the YA novel Out of Xibalba, a story that begins when the world ends. The same week Out of Xibalba launched, Liz sold YA dark contemporary psychological thriller Pretty Girl-13 to HarperCollins for international publication. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, her teenaged daughter, a snoring dog, and a limping old cat. The two older boys have flown the nest for college. Her passions beyond reading and writing include singing, photography, and baking. She plays competitive tennis to keep herself fit and humble. Taped on her computer are her “lucky charms”—the fifteen Chinese cookie fortunes collected over the years which spoke to her writing aspirations and encouraged her along the journey. She’s LizColeyBooks on social media and at http://www.LizColey.com.
Casey Daniels
Casey Daniels once applied for a job as a tour guide in a Cleveland cemetery. She didn’t get the job, but she did get the idea for the heroine in her popular Pepper Martin mystery series. Pepper works at a historic cemetery and solves mysteries for the ghosts there. In addition, Casey has a new series, the Button Box mysteries, written as Kylie Logan.…
Read MoreCasey Daniels once applied for a job as a tour guide in a Cleveland cemetery. She didn’t get the job, but she did get the idea for the heroine in her popular Pepper Martin mystery series. Pepper works at a historic cemetery and solves mysteries for the ghosts there. In addition, Casey has a new series, the Button Box mysteries, written as Kylie Logan. Casey has also written both historical and contemporary romances as well as books for young adults and one children’s book. She lives in the Cleveland area and teaches fiction writing classes at the Brecksville Center for the Arts. She is a frequent presenter at workshops nationwide.
Sally Derby
Sally Derby is the author of numerous children’s books. The inspiration for No Mush Today came from a young girl at Derby’s church, and from her own childhood dislike of cornmeal mush. Derby and her husband live in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the winner of the 2017 Juvenile/Middle Grade Ohioana Book Award for Jump Back, Paul.
Julia DeVillers
Julia DeVillers is a best selling author of fiction for young people. Her books include How My Private Personal Journal Became a Bestseller,which was adapted into the Disney Channel Original Movie Read It and Weep, directed by Paul Hoen. Her other books include the Trading Faces identical twins series with her co-author and identical Jennifer Roy, the Liberty Porter: First Daughter series and Princess of Gossip with co-author Sabrina Bryan of Disney’s Cheetah Girls and Dancing with the Stars.…
Read MoreJulia DeVillers is a best selling author of fiction for young people. Her books include How My Private Personal Journal Became a Bestseller,which was adapted into the Disney Channel Original Movie Read It and Weep, directed by Paul Hoen. Her other books include the Trading Faces identical twins series with her co-author and identical Jennifer Roy, the Liberty Porter: First Daughter series and Princess of Gossip with co-author Sabrina Bryan of Disney’s Cheetah Girls and Dancing with the Stars. Her next book will be Emma Emmets, Playground Matchmaker (Razorbill, 2013).
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
Sharon M. Draper
Sharon M. Draper is a professional educator as well as an accomplished writer. She has been honored as the National Teacher of the Year, is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Awards, and is a New York Times bestselling author, with Out of my Mind staying on the list for almost two years. She was selected as Ohio’s Outstanding High School Language Arts Educator, Ohio Teacher of the Year, and was chosen as a NCNW Excellence in Teaching Award winner. She is a Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award winner, and was the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence for the Taft Museum. She is a YWCA Career Woman of Achievement, and is the recipient of the Dean’s Award from Howard University School of Education, the Pepperdine University Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Marva Collins Education Excellence Award, and the Governor’s Educational Leadership Award. Last year she was named Ohio Pioneer in Education by the Ohio State Department of Education, and in 2008 she received the Beacon of Light Humanitarian award. In 2009 she received the Doctor of Laws Degree from Pepperdine University. In 2011, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the field of adolescent literature by The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English, as well as the 33rd Annual Jeremiah Luddington Award by the Educational Book and Media Association, also for lifetime achievement. In 2015 she was honored by the American Library Association as the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime literary achievement. In 2015 she was honored with the Anne V. Zarrow Award by the Tulsa Library Trust., as well as the 2016 Upstander Award by Antioch College.
Lynda Durrant
Lynda Durrant is a nationally known, award-winning author of historic fiction novels for young readers. Her novels have received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. They’ve been praised in The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, The Hornbook, and School Library Journal. Her novels have received awards from The Ohioana Library Association, The New York Library Association, and the American Library Association, among others. Ariel Bradley, Spy for General Washington, is her first picture book. Durrant lives with her husband and son in Bath, Ohio. She has a bachelors’ degree in honor’s English and a double masters in teaching and writing, all from the University of Washington in Seattle.