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): Adult
Vicki Leigh
Vicki Leigh grew up in a small suburb of Akron, Ohio, where she learned to read by the age of four and considered being sent to her room for punishment as an opportunity to dive into another book. By the sixth grade, Vicki penned her first full-length screenplay. If she couldn’t be a writer, Vicki would be a Hunter (think Dean and Sam Winchester) or a Jedi. Her favorite place on earth is Hogwarts (she refuses to believe it doesn’t exist), and her favorite dreams include solving cases
alongside Sherlock Holmes. She’s a previous acquisitions editor for Curiosity Quills Press and also writes as Tori Rigby. Visit her online at http://www.vleighwrites.com.
K.A. Lemon
K. A. Lemon is the author of Dragons of Alaska and the sci-fi thriller The Gridiron Games, a screenplay written in 2013. Currently, he’s working on his second novel, Tornado Riders, which continues his exploration of the sci-fi genre. K. A. Lemon studied at Ohio University and currently resides in central Ohio. Outside of writing, he is a father, friend, and son who enjoys reading, brainstorming new ideas, and 3-D printing. A passionate motorcycle enthusiast, he loves riding the scenic roads and relaxing poolside the entire summer. You can find him on Facebook @K. A. Lemon.
Cathy Cultice Lentes
Cathy Cultice Lentes recently retired from teaching and working with students with disabilitie sas part of the Special Education/Psychology team in Meigs County, Ohio. In 2016, she published a poetry chapbook, Getting The Mail (Finishing Line Press). In addition to poetry, Lentes writes creative nonfiction and a variety of works for children. She earned her MFA in Writing for Young People from the Solstice Program in 2013. Wendy McVicker and Cathy Cultice Lentes admired each other’s work from afar before becoming good friends and have often published in the same literary journals and anthologies, most recently, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing, Ohio’s Appalachian voices (Sheila-Na-GigEditions, 2022).
Crissie Ann Leonard
God found Crissie when she wasn’t looking for Him. At first, she ran from him but he continued to pursue her. After a few years, she found herself in a difficult and dark season and that is when they met. He provided the light to illuminate her dark season and she promised to follow him wherever he wanted to take her.
He called her to use the pain and the journey through the dark season as her message. That is when Letters to My Father was born. Crissie writes Christian fiction books to show people God’s presence in their lives and all around them.
She lives in Blacklick, Ohio with her family and her cat, Smokey.
Kristen Lepionka
Kristen Lepionka is the author of the Roxane Weary mystery series. Her debut, The Last Place You Look, won the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. novel and was also nominated for Anthony and Macavity Awards in 2018. The follow-up, WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE, won a Goldie for Best Mystery and a Shamus Award for Best P.I. novel in 2019. She grew up mostly in a public library and could often be found in the adult mystery section well before she was out of middle school. Her writing has been selected for Shotgun Honey, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Grift, and Black Elephant. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her partner and two cats.
Carolyn Bailey Lewis
Dr. Carolyn Bailey Lewis retired from public media in 2011 following a distinguished 38-year career, the most recent position as director and general manager of WOUB Public Media at Ohio University in Athens where she served for 13 years as the first woman and first African American to lead this entity and the first woman to be Emerita. She was also general manager at WNPB-TV in Morgantown, West Virginia, and was the first African American woman named to head a public television station in the continental United States (1994). She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the 2020 Medal of Merit for Professional Achievement from the Ohio University Alumni Association. Other honors include the Neil S. Bucklew Award for Social Justice at West Virginia University (WVU). Dr. Lewis has served as a consultant to public stations and was elected or appointed to numerous national and state public media committees and boards, including the Association of Public Television Stations’ Board of Trustees in D.C. and the Sesame Workshop in New York City. Dr. Lewis taught in the Scripps College of Communication, is an adjunct professor for Hocking College, serves on several local and state committees, is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and is an ordained minister.She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Journalism from WVU in Morgantown, the first African American woman to graduate with an undergraduate degree in Journalism from WVU (1971) and she earned a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. She is an advocate for accessibility and inclusion and consults on those issues. She and her daughter, Caryn M. Bailey, MPA, are co-founders of the Dr. Carolyn Foster Bailey Lewis Family Foundation, a charitable organization which promotes health, wellness, and education for those with acute chronic illnesses and disabilities (www.drcarolynfosterbaileylewisff.org). They also created LifeDay Greeting Cards, Inc. (trademarked), a unique card line set to be launched in October 2021 that celebrates surviving a life-altering event. She has two adult children: Carey Bailey, a professional football coach with the Ottawa, Canada, Redblacks; Caryn, assistant director of development, Major Giving, at Ohio University and a doctoral student; and two granddaughters. Her motto is: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Terri Libenson
DiAndra Liccardo
My name is DiAndra Liccardo. I reside in Twinsburg, Ohio. I am a mother to three beautiful children and I love spending time with my family and creating memories. I enjoy playing the flute and I am currently learning to play the guitar. I am a newly published author of a love poem book titled Butterflies that was released July 2023. My love poem book is filled with poems and quotes that I hope give you butterflies. Yes, I am on the cover of my book. My first passion in life was to be a model. I still enjoy modeling, but do it for fun in my spare time. Writing has always been a passion of mine. Aside from writing I am a passionate teacher. I have my Associate and Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education. Although this is my first book, I have two other books in the works that I am hoping to publish in the near future.
Deseree Liddell
Deseree Mitchell Liddell was born on October 15, 1925, in Lexington, Mississippi, and grew up under some of the nation’s harshest Jim Crow laws.
In 1951, she and her husband moved to Ravenna, Ohio, becoming residents of Skeels Allotment, one of the local designated-Black areas. There she fought to get basic living conditions such as water and sewer, natural gas lines, and streetlights for her community. She was also instrumental in getting African American teachers and administrators in the Ravenna School System.
She taught school in both Mississippi and Ohio, and in the 1960s, she started a youth group and a senior citizens club in her home. Her goal was to promote community pride, self-awareness, and social, economic, and educational awareness within the African American communities.
Mrs. Liddell was instrumental in getting a community center for the Skeels neighborhood and was the center’s first director. At age 97, she is still active in events at the center.
In 1991, a group of community residents founded the Deseree Liddell Minority Scholarship Fund in her honor. The proceeds of her memoir go to this fund and are awarded to high school seniors to help further their education.
Learn more: https://theportager.com/ravenna-author-shares-her-life-story-from-the-jim-crow-south-to-northern-ohio/
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Collaborator Mary Louise Ruehr was born in Ravenna, Ohio. A graduate of Kent State University, she has spent her career in communications. For 12 years she was a writer and editor at the Record-Courier, the daily newspaper covering Portage County. There she wrote a popular column, “One for the Books,” featuring book reviews and reading-related topics. The column is now featured in ThePortager.com, an online news source.
Theresa Liggins
Theresa E. Liggins has been writing and publishing her works of fiction since 2000 when, of all things, her ballroom dance training became the inspiration of her first two novels, Life is But a Dream and Dance Me to the End of Love. From that point, she knew she had been bitten by the writing bug. Nine novels later, she wrote, You Danced On My Dreams – Beyond the Ballroom to cement the dramatic series; and was further inspired to write her tenth novel, Sis Loyalty, to bring the story full circle. In addition to several new books, Liggins went on to breathe new life into several of her earlier projects including, The Escort Series, as well as, Under the Purple Moon and its sequel, Under the Cover of Darkness.
Although born, raised, and currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, along her journeys, Ms. Liggins has fondly called Northern California and Chicago, Illinois home. Her love for writing and photography keeps her exploring and following her dreams. She has met some interesting characters along the way— some of whom have even inspired the colorful and beloved characters in her novels. Never short of relatable life experiences, wherever her journey takes her, you will find her conjuring up her next compelling page-turners.
Among her many passions is financial literacy. She enjoys educating and empowering consumers with facts on how to raise their credit score. Theresa, also known as The Ultimate Credit Warrior, has spent a decade analyzing and researching credit scoring and has been inducted into the Elusive 850 Club, which consists of only 1.2% of all FICO scores.
To learn more about Theresa E. Liggins and her books, visit http://www.romanticreations.com or follow her on social media.