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
Photo of Jen Knox

Jen Knox

Jen Knox is the author of We Arrive Uninvited (Steel Toe Books, 2023), which won the Steel Toe Books Award in prose, and After the Gazebo (Rain Mountain Press, 2015). Her short fiction and creative nonfiction can be found in journals such as Saturday Evening Post and McSweeney's Internet Quarterly. She founded and runs Unleash Creatives, a holistic arts organization based in Ohio.…Read More
Photo of Wendy Koile

Wendy Koile

Wendy Koile has spent most of her life exploring the nooks and crannies of Ohio. When not traveling or writing, Wendy works full-time as the Director of Teaching and Learning at a community college in Ohio. She holds a masters degree in teaching and one in English. She currently has four books published with The History Press and is working on ideas for the next one.Read More

Trudy Krisher

Trudy Krisher is the author of many award-winning books for young adults and children as well as a scholarly biography. She has a reputation as a talented writer who does not hesitate to explore sensitive issues. In novels like SPITE Fences, Kinship, Fallout, and Uncommon Faith, social issues are always embedded in a lively historical context with a dramatic story line.…Read More
Photo of Robert Kroeger

Robert Kroeger

Dr. Robert Kroeger, a native of Youngstown, graduated from Ohio State University’s College of Dentistry, served four years of active duty in the US Navy, ending with the rank of lieutenant commander. He and his late wife Brenda moved to Cincinnati where they raised five children and Dr. Kroeger practiced general dentistry from 1977 to 2010, when he retired.…Read More
Photo of John W. Kropf

John W. Kropf

John Kropf is the author of Unknown Sands: Journeys Around the World’s Most Isolated Country that Publisher’s Weekly praised as a fascinating narrative bound to hook adventurers. His writing has appeared in appeared The Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Kropf was born in Sandusky and raised in Erie County, Ohio. He is an attorney in the Washington, DC.…Read More
Photo of Nan Kuhlman

Nan Kuhlman

Nan Kuhlman is an author, freelance writer, and part-time university professor who lives in Los Angeles but still thinks of rural northwest Ohio as home. Her nonfiction book Nontraditional: Life Lessons from a Community College tells of her time spent as an adjunct writing professor at a small community college there and intertwines the stories of her nontraditional students with her own nontraditional start in higher education.…Read More
Photo of Peter Kurtz

Peter Kurtz

Peter Kurtz was born in New Jersey but raised in Mansfield, Ohio. He obtained a B.S. in Journalism from Ohio University and currently lives in Cincinnati. He’s worked as a jazz disc jockey, freelance writer, and primarily as an engineering technical writer. Kurtz’s books include Bluejackets in the Blubber Room (University of Alabama Press), praised by both maritime and Civil War historians; a trail-hiking memoir, Evergreen Dreaming; and the Nick Montaigne detective mysteries, Black Jackknife and The Shades Dripped Red, the latter of which was inspired by an unsolved true crime in Kurtz’s old neighborhood.…Read More
Photo of Barbara Kussow

Barbara Kussow

Barbara Kussow is the author of a novel, PORTRAIT OF ANNIE, and two novellas, THE SPENCERS OF OHIO; AN ABOLITIONIST FAMILY IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA and THE MERLIN SUBSIDIARY. She is a contributor to WRITING AFTER RETIREMENT (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014; ed. by Carol Smallwood and Christine Redman-Waldeyer).…Read More
Photo of Stephen Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto is the author of the memoirs Have Dog, Will Travel; Planet of the Blind (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”); and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening and of the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light and Letters to Borges.…Read More
Photo of Paula J. Lambert

Paula J. Lambert

Paula J. Lambert has published nine collections of poetry, including As If This Did Not Happen Every Day (Sheila-Na-Gig 2024) and Uncertainty (The Only Hope We Have) (Bottlecap 2023). Also a visual artist, small-press publisher, and literary translator, her work has been recognized by PEN America and supported by the Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts.…Read More