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): Fiction
Michael Nye
Michael Nye is the author of the story collection STRATEGIES AGAINST EXTINCTION (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2012) and the novel ALL THE CASTLES BURNED, forthcoming from Turner Publishing in February 2018.
He was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended the Ohio State University, where he graduated with a BA in English Literature, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he earned his MFA in creative writing.
His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in American Literary Review, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Crab Orchard Review, Epoch, Kenyon Review, New South, Normal School, Sou’wester, and South Dakota Review, among many others. His work has been a finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in fiction and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife in Columbus, Ohio.
Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi’s works include WHO FEARS DEATH (in development at HBO into a TV series), the BINTI novella trilogy (optioned and in development with Media Res), THE BOOK OF PHOENIX, the NSIBIDI SCRIPTS SERIES and LAGOON. She is the winner of Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus and Lodestar Awards and her debut novel ZAHRAH THE WINDSEEKER won the prestigious Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature.…
Read MoreNnedi’s works include WHO FEARS DEATH (in development at HBO into a TV series), the BINTI novella trilogy (optioned and in development with Media Res), THE BOOK OF PHOENIX, the NSIBIDI SCRIPTS SERIES and LAGOON. She is the winner of Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus and Lodestar Awards and her debut novel ZAHRAH THE WINDSEEKER won the prestigious Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature.
Nnedi has also written an Africanfuturist comic series LAGUARDIA (winner of the Hugo and Eisner Award); comics for Marvel, including BLACK PANTHER: LONG LIVE THE KING and WAKANDA FOREVER (featuring the Dora Milaje) and the SHURI series; and her short memoir BROKEN PLACES AND OUTER SPACES.
Nnedi holds a PhD (literature) and two MAs (journalism and literature). She lives with her daughter Anyaugo and family in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more at: https://nnedi.com/
Michael Olin-Hitt
Michael Olin-Hitt is a Professor of English at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, where he teaches creative writing, American literature, and Native American literature. In addition to the novel The Homegoing, he has published nine short stories in various literary journals, such as The Nebraska Review, The Notre Dame Review, The Other Side, and Puerto Del Sol. He has also published two works of nonfiction on spirituality: The Word of God Upon My Lips and A Fish Made of Water. He was born in Dayton, and has lived in Ohio his entire life. Currently, he lives in Uniontown with his wife and two children.
Robert Olmstead
Robert Olmstead is the author of The Coldest Night Coal Black Horse, published in 2008, and the winner of the Heartland Prize for Fiction, the Ohioana Award for fiction, a #1 Book Sense Pick, and a Borders Original Voices pick. It was also a 2011-2012 Choose to Read Ohio adult title. The Coldest Night, released in April 2012 was selected as an Editors’ Pick for Amazon’s Best of 2012 list, a Publishers Weekly pick for Best Books of the Year, and a Kirkus Reviews’ Top 25 Fiction Books of 2012.Olmstead is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and an NEA grant, and he is currently a professor of English and Director of Ohio Wesleyan’s Creative Writing Program.…
Read MoreRobert Olmstead is the author of The Coldest Night Coal Black Horse, published in 2008, and the winner of the Heartland Prize for Fiction, the Ohioana Award for fiction, a #1 Book Sense Pick, and a Borders Original Voices pick. It was also a 2011-2012 Choose to Read Ohio adult title. The Coldest Night, released in April 2012 was selected as an Editors’ Pick for Amazon’s Best of 2012 list, a Publishers Weekly pick for Best Books of the Year, and a Kirkus Reviews’ Top 25 Fiction Books of 2012.Olmstead is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and an NEA grant, and he is currently a professor of English and Director of Ohio Wesleyan’s Creative Writing Program. He previously served as Senior Writer in Residence at Dickinson College and as director of the creative writing program at Boise State University. Visit Robert’s website, http://www.robertolmsteadbooks.com/.
Kristen Orlando
Writing is one of the great loves of Kristen Orlando’s life and she has been lucky enough to make it her living, first as a television producer, then as a marketer and now as a novelist. Kristen graduated with a B.A. in English literature from Kenyon College. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with the other great love of her life, Michael.
Paul Orshoski
Paul Orshoski, children’s author and poet, is a former school teacher, coach and principal from Sandusky, Ohio. He writes witty, humorous, rhyming children’s books and poems. Paul is the author of thirteen children’s books published by Treasure Bay, Inc. of Novato, California. Several of his books are part of Treasure Bay’s “We Read Phonics” series, including “Where is My Frog?”, “Robot Man”, and “Sports Dream”, which were selected as Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Honor winners in 2011. Paul has four books published in the “We Both Read” Treasure Bay series entitled, “My Sitter is a T-Rex!”, “The Mouse in My House”, “The Mouse in My House / Un raton en mi casa”, and “The Ant and The Pancake”. Paul is also the author of several poems that have appeared in poetry anthologies These include: “My Teacher’s in Detention”, “Dinner with Dracula”, “I’ve Been Burping in the Classroom”, “I Hope I Don’t Strike Out”, and “What I Did on my Summer Vacation”. Paul’s poems have also appeared in the following magazines: “Boys’ Quest”, “Fun For Kidz”, “Hopscotch For Girls”, “Scholastic Action”, and “The School Administrator”. Paul enjoys making kids giggle during school visits by enthusiastically performing his poems and books in small or large group settings wherever he is asked to present.
Sarah Pagliaro
I’m Sarah Pagliaro! A Columbus-born, freelance artist who recently moved back to my home state after living in Colorado. I graduated Columbus College of Art and Design in 2014 with a BFA in Illustration. After years of working in a variety of art related jobs, I decided to take a leap and start working for myself in 2021 under my business name “Spooky Moose Studio”.
I chose to be an Illustrator as a way to give to others what so many past artists have given me. Through my work, I want to be able to entertain people of all ages in a way that brings out their own creativity and imagination. Combining my love of wildlife and the great outdoors with my spooky-cute aesthetic, I hope to bring a little bit of happiness and laughter into the world.
Learn more about Pagliaro and her debut children’s book here: https://www.sarahpagliaro.com/new-page-1
Eliot Parker
Eliot Parker is an award-winning author. His latest collection of short stories, Snapshots was a finalist in short story genre by the American Fiction Awards as well as the Readers Favorite International Book Awards. He is also the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance.…
Read MoreEliot Parker is an award-winning author. His latest collection of short stories, Snapshots was a finalist in short story genre by the American Fiction Awards as well as the Readers Favorite International Book Awards. He is also the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing and his third novel, Code for Murder, was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. Eliot is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and he recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels. In 2019, he received the JUG Award by the West Virginia Writers, Inc. organization for his creative work as well as his role in promoting writers and the literary arts in his home state of West Virginia. Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. The program is the most listened to podcast program on the network. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches writing at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.
Wolfgang Parker
Wolfgang Parker is the accidental author and illustrator of the Crime Cats children’s mystery series. He wrote the first volume, Crime Cats: Missing, as a gift for his nineteen nieces and nephews, and soon found people of all ages enjoyed reading the adventures of the Chicken-Boy of Clintonville and his cat detective partners. The series has won nine publishing awards. Parker was the recipient of the 2018 OELMA Literacy Leadership Award and voted one of Columbus’ best authors in the 2015 ColumbusUnderground.com reader’s poll. Too Scary to Read Alone is Parker’s first contribution to children’s horror. The abomination known as Vilnius Oorte has haunted Central Ohio for more than 50 years, though its exact origin is unknown. Too Scary to Read Alone is the first publication to feature the “art” that Oorte has spawned and unleashed. All are advised to approach with extreme caution.
Donna Alice Patton
Donna Alice Patton is a gardening enthusiast from the Midwest who has won numerous ribbons and trophies for her flowers and vegetables. In the winter when she can’t play in the dirt, she soothes her creativity by writing instead. She is the author of five books for children including: Saddle Up! Based on a real California horse camp and Snipped in the Bud: A Tale from the Garden of Mysteries. Find out more at: http://www.donnaalicepatton.com.