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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Eliese Colette Goldbach
Eliese Colette Goldbach received an MFA in nonfiction from the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Western Humanities Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Best American Essays 2017. She received the Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Award and a Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant from the Ohioana Library Association, which is given to a young Ohio writer of promise. She lives in Willoughby, OH, with her husband.
Shari Goldhagen
Shari Goldhagen is the author of the adult novels IN SOME OTHER WORLD, MAYBE (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) and FAMILY AND OTHER ACCIDENTS (Doubleday, 2006), as well as the YA novel 100 DAYS OF CAKE (Atheneum, 2016). A fellow at both Yaddo and MacDowell and the winner of Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant, Shari has a BSJ from Northwestern University and an MFA from The Ohio State University. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in outlets including, Salon, Cosmopolitan, Prism International, Esquire.com, Conjunctions, Small Spiral Notebook, Indiana Review, and KGB Bar Lit, and she regularly writers about pop culture, travel and relationships for publications including Us Weekly, Life & Style Weekly, Penthouse, NY Metro, and DaySpa. Shari has taught creative writing at OSU, Mediabistro, and the Gotham Writers Workshop. You can find out about her at Sharigoldhagen.com (when she remembers to update her website).
Suzanne Goldsmith
Suzanne Goldsmith graduated from Harvard University and has worked as the marketing director for a foundation, an associate producer for public television documentaries, a newspaper reporter and freelance magazine writer, and a team leader in a youth community service program. Her first book, A City Year, is the true story of a year in a youth community service program.
Suzanne’s first middle-grade novel, Washashore, was the winner of the 2014 Green Earth Book Award, YA category, and was shortlisted for the Ohioana Book Award, Children’s category. In the book fourteen-year-old Clementine has left her city life in Boston to spend the winter on Martha’s Vineyard. She’s what the locals call a “washashore”: someone who has come to live on the island but isn’t from there. An outsider. Clem doesn’t have any friends and doesn’t fit in. Her mom and dad aren’t getting along. Coco, her friend, is three hours away. But then Clem finds a fallen osprey on the beach and gets involved with the effort to save these endangered birds. When she meets a lonely boy named Daniel, everything changes . . .
Suzanne is currently working on a second novel, set in an abandoned ski lodge in southern Ohio. She visits schools, libraries and summer programs to teach writing workshops and to talk about the writing process. She is also available to do joint visits with a raptor specialist who brings live birds into the classroom. She lives with her family in the Columbus area, and can be found on the web at http://www.suzanne-goldsmith.com.
Linda Gondosch
A former language arts teacher and Northern Kentucky University instructor, Linda Gondosch has written numerous books for children, including picture books, early chapter books, middle grade fiction and nonfiction published by Lerner Publishing Group, Random House, and others. Who Needs a Bratty Brother? won the Kentucky Bluegrass Award. Also, How Did Tea and Taxes Spark a Revolution? was named an Honor Book by the Society of School Librarians International. Gondosch earned a BS in Education from Ohio University and a Master of Education from Northern Kentucky University. She has spoken at over 200 schools and libraries about books and the writing process.
Many of Gondosch’s books were inspired by her own childhood in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as by the adventures of her four children who were raised in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Today Gondosch lives with her husband in Hebron, KY, near Cincinnati. They enjoy traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe, visiting historic sites. After seeing the Mission of San Francisco, Gondosch was inspired to write her book, Junípero Serra: Founder of the California Missions.
Gwen Goodkin
Gwen Goodkin is the author of the short story collection, ‘A Place Remote.’ She has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has won the Folio Editor’s Prize for Fiction as well as the John Steinbeck Award for Fiction. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
Roger Gordon
The Miracle of Richfield: The Story of the 1975-76 Cleveland Cavaliers is Roger Gordon’s fifth book and his second on the Cavaliers. His Tales from the Cleveland Cavaliers: The Rookie Season of LeBron James was published in 2004. Prior to that, he published books about the Cleveland Browns and one on the Cincinnati Bengals. Gordon lives in North Canton, Ohio.
Sarah Gormley
Sarah Gormley’s debut memoir, The Order of Things is the story of how her return to the family farm to care for her dying mother changed her life in ways she never imagined possible. She owns the Sarah Gormley Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, which operates from the belief that original art can be a source of joy for everyone.
Genevieve Gornichec
Genevieve Gornichec earned her degree in history from The Ohio State University, but she got as close to majoring in Vikings as she possibly could, and her study of the Norse myths and Icelandic sagas became her writing inspiration. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she now lives even deeper in the Midwest. The Witch’s Heart is her debut novel.
Visit her website at: https://genevievegornichec.com/
Barry Gott
Barry Gott grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where he drew his first books on paint can labels from his dad’s paint factory. After upgrading to real paper he developed a love of humor and cartoons, which led first to a B.F.A. in Painting from Bowling Green State University, followed by a career writing and designing humorous greeting cards for American Greetings. Since 1999 he has illustrated dozens of children’s books and in 2018 his first book as author/illustrator, Honk! Splat! Vroom! was published by Lerner Books. Barry lives in South Euclid with his wife, kids, and an ever-increasing number of small animals.
Chelsea Gottfried
Chelsea Gottfried works as a naturalist and nature-based preschool teacher for the Crawford Park District in north central Ohio. She is an avid gardener and a passionate entomologist. https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Gardening+for+Moths