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

Judith Moffett

Judith Moffett was born in Louisville in 1942 and grew up in Cincinnati. She is an English professor, a poet, a Swedish translator, and the author of twelve books in six genres. These include three volumes of poetry, two of Swedish poetry in formal translation, four science-fiction novels plus a collection of stories, a volume of creative nonfiction, and a critical study of James Merrill’s poetry. She has also written an unpublished memoir of her long friendship with Merrill. Her work in poetry, translation, and science fiction has earned numerous awards and award nominations, including an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry, an NEH Translation Grant, the Swedish Academy’s Tolkningspris, and in science fiction the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Theodore Sturgeon Award for the year’s best short story. Two of her novels were New York Times Notable Books.

Moffett earned a doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania, with a thesis on Stephen Vincent Benét’s narrative poetry, directed by Daniel Hoffman. She taught American literature and creative writing at several colleges and universities, including the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the University of Kentucky, and for fifteen years the University of Pennsylvania. She has lived for extended periods in England (Cambridge and London) and Sweden (Lund and Stockholm), as well as around the US, living/teaching/writing in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Utah. In 1983 she married Medievalist Edward B. Irving, Jr., her colleague at Penn. Widowed in 1998, Judy now divides her year between Oxford OH and her hundred-acre recovering farm near Lawrenceburg KY, sharing both homes with her standard poodles, Corbie and Lexi.

For a complete list of Judy’s published work, visit her Wikipedia entry: wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Moffett

Wes Molebash

Wes Molebash is the creator of several popular webcomics, most notably You’ll Have That (Viper Comics) and Molebashed (self-published). He has also created cartoons for companies and organizations such as the Ohio State University, Target, and PBS Kids. Travis Daventhorpe for the Win! is his debut graphic novel. Learn more here: https://www.wesmolebash.com/.Read More

Jess Montgomery

Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mysteries, set in 1920s Appalachian Ohio and inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff. Under her given name, she writes the “Level Up Your (Writing) Life” column for Writer’s Digest. She was formerly a newspaper columnist, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News. She is a three-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council, a two-time recipient of the Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District (MCAD) Artist Opportunity Grant, and has been a John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio). Learn more at: https://jessmontgomeryauthor.com/

Martha Moody

Martha Moody, author of 2001’s bestseller Best Friends, graduated from medical school in 1982. She finished her internal medicine residency in 1985 and was in private practice as an internist until 2000. Since then she has been the volunteer medical director at a clinic for the working poor, and is a volunteer at Wright State School of Medicine teaching first year med students physical diagnosis.…Read More

E.S. Moore

E.S. Moore was born and raised in Ohio where he still lives with his wife and son. He attended Ohio University, majoring in Electronic Media and later Telecommunications. Writing has always been a big part of his life, with paranormal and horror being especially important to him. Moore is busy penning more Kat Redding adventures.Read More

Oge Mora

Oge Mora is a collage artist and storyteller. Her picture book, Thank You, Omu!, was a Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, and Ezra Jack Keats Book Award recipient. Her second book, Saturday won the 2020 Boston Globe—Horn Book Picture Book Award. Oge’s artwork has been applauded by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe.…

Oge grew up in Columbus, Ohio but resides in Providence, RI. She is a fan of all things colorful, patterned, or collaged, and enjoys creating warm stories that celebrate people coming together. Visit her website at: http://www.ogemora.com/.

David Lee Morgan , Jr.

David Lee Morgan, Jr. has been a sports reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal since 1995. He has won several awards for his coverage of high school sports, including the James A. Sutherland Award, given to the top “rookie” reporter in Northeast Ohio and was named the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association Writer of the Year three times (2004, 2007, 2009). He is a former high school and collegiate athlete. He played baseball and basketball at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, Ohio and baseball at Youngstown State University.

Chiquita Mullins Lee

Chiquita Mullins Lee is an Arts Learning coordinator for the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) where she coordinates the Arts Partnership and Big Yellow School Bus grant programs and Ohio’s Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest. Formerly of Atlanta, she has over twenty years of experience in broadcast production and programming and worked as a public television producer/director in Nashville, Tennessee.…

Chiquita has served as the chair and Midwest regional coordinator for the Arts Education Working Group, in association with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and has served on the Arts Education and partnership review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. As a teaching artist for OAC’s Artist-in-Residence program, she engaged students throughout Ohio in creative writing activities. She won individual artist/excellence awards in fiction and playwriting from the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) and in fiction and nonfiction from OAC. She was writer-in-residence at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences in Rabun Gap, Georgia. Her nonfiction, fiction, and poetry have appeared in national literary journals and her work is featured on the PBS American Portrait project, For My People: The Re-Mix. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is featured on the Long Street Cultural Wall in Columbus, Ohio. She hosted the Emmy award-winning program, Traditions – Ohio Heritage Fellows produced by Think-TV in Dayton. She writes and performs with Columbus-based Wild Women Writing, and recently performed in the plays, Twelve Hours and The Shakespeare Club by Dave Carley, and Lost Lake by David Auburn. She portrayed Venus in William Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis and appeared in PAST PRODUCTIONS’ presentation of Sisters by Marsha Jackson.

Chiquita co-wrote 12, a three-woman show about girls on the threshold of womanhood, and Myrlie, Coretta and Betty: the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement, in which she plays Coretta Scott King. Chiquita’s critically acclaimed play, Pierce to the Soul, premiered at CATCO, toured central Ohio with A Portable Theatre Company, and was featured in the 2019 History in ACTion Playwright’s Festival, which also presented her monologue, Ms. Morrison Speaks to Pilate from Song of Solomon. A member of New Covenant Believers Church, Chiquita leads Word Warriors creative writing ministry. Her picture book, YOU GOTTA MEET MR. PIERCE, co-authored with Carmella Van Vleet and illustrated by Jennifer Mack-Watkins is published by Kokila Books, an imprint of Penguin/Random House.

Learn more at: https://www.chiquitamullinslee.com/

Dara Naraghi

Dara Naraghi was born in Iran and educated in the United States. His graphic novel trilogy Persia Blues has been praised by Publishers Weekly and the Midwest Book Review, has been nominated for awards by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and won a S.P.A.C.E. Prize for best graphic novel. His other notable graphic novels include the Terminator Salvation official movie prequel, and Witch & Wizard: Battle for Shadowland (both New York Times Bestsellers), as well as works for Image Comics, IDW Publishing, Dark Horse, and DC Comics. Dara is also a founding member of the comic book writers/artists collective known as PANEL, with whom he has produced 20 volumes of their comics anthology. Dara lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, daughter, and the world’s sweetest hound dog. Visit him online at http://www.daranaraghi.com/

Samuel Narh

Samuel Narh is an award-winning children’s book author. His books, A Kite for Melia and Milko, were created with co-author Freda Narh. He enjoys painting pictures with words using his stories, which are meant to touch and reach people across the world. Learn more at: https://www.samuelnarh.com/Read More

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