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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Camille Licate
Camille Licate, author of “Bree and Me : A True Story of a Rescue Rooster’s
Journey” is Bree, the Rescue Rooster’s Mom! She is the Founder of
Kids for Positive Change, a multimedia environmental education company
reaching, teaching and inspiring kids to take positive action for animals,
people and the planet, through live events and the Kids for Positive Change
television show, currently airing on WQLN PBS, and online, on PBS Learning
Media. Camille is the creator, writer and host of the Kids for Positive Change
television show, which features the KPC Team, young changemakers from
coast to coast, expert guests, and Bree the Rescue Rooster! When not on
set, Camille and Bree are on stage, as guest speakers, (or in Bree’s case
guest “beaker”) at live Kids for Positive Change school and community
outreach events.
Born in Ashtabula, Ohio, Camille always had a great affinity for animals,
writing, education and entertainment. She graduated from Mercyhurst
University, in Erie, PA, earning a degree in Dance and a minor in
Anthropology. Camille lived in NYC, where she studied and performed with
The Martha Graham Dance Company and worked as a pottery analyst for
The American Museum of Natural History. She was hired as a “dancer who
could act,” by The Shakespeare Theatre, in Washington D.C., and went on to
star in many stage productions before making the coastal leap to Los
Angeles, CA, where she worked as a professional actress and screenwriter,
making her screenwriting debut with her animated children’s film, “IZZIE’S
WAY HOME.” An animal advocate, Camille worked for Orangutan Foundation
International and traveled to Camp Leakey, in Borneo, Indonesia, to film and
study the endangered orangutan. In 2017, Camille founded Kids for Positive
Change, piloting her programs at Ashtabula Area City Schools, in Ashtabula,
Ohio and, over the years, expanding her live event programs to schools in
Ohio and New York. Season one of the Kids for Positive Change television
show, debuted on PBS stations in New York, North Carolina, Michigan,
Pennsylvania and Colorado, in 2021 and 2022, and season two is set to
debut on WQLN, PBS, in Erie, PA, in early 2023.
Camille serves on the board of Kent State University’s Rising Scholars
Program, in Ashtabula, Ohio, and is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni
award, from Mercyhurst University, in Erie, PA, for Outstanding Service to
the Community. In addition to “Bree and Me,” Camille has authored and
self-published the books, Small Shoes : Outgrowing Old Relationships and
Finding the Right Fit and Breelieve! A Coloring and Picture Book, featuring
Bree, the rescue rooster.
Camille’s three favorite things: Dogs in coats, airport reunions and vegan
donuts. Learn more: https://www.camillelicate.com/about/
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.
Lara Lillibridge
Lara Lillibridge (she/they) sings off-beat and dances off-key. She is the author of The Truth About Unringing Phones: Essays on Yearning, Mama, Mama, Only Mama: An Irreverent Guide for the Newly Single Parent, and Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home. Lara is an editor for HeartWood Literary and holds an MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan College. You can find her keeping the peace between her rescue mutt and her tiger cats in Ohio, where she lives with her partner and teenagers.
Julie Anne Lindsey
Julie Anne Lindsey is an award-winning and bestselling author of mystery and romantic suspense. She’s published more than fifty novels since her debut in 2013 and currently writes series as herself, as well as under multiple pen names, for Harlequin, Kensington, Sourcebooks and Crooked Lane Books. When Julie’s not creating new worlds or fostering the epic love of fictional characters, she can be found in Kent, Ohio, plotting murder with her shamelessly enabling friends. Today she hopes to make someone smile. One day she plans to change the world. Learn more about Julie at julieannelindsey.com
Jacqueline Lipton
Jacqueline Lipton is an attorney, law professor and literary agent/consultant whose work focuses on privacy, business, and legal issues in the digital age. She teaches on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is a Senior Agent at the Tobias Literary Agency. Learn more at: https://jlipton.com/
Robinson Lizano Briceño
Robinson Lizano Briceño is a journalist, professor, and writer. He immigrated to the United States from Venezuela in 2018. He is the author of the books Manual de Géneros Periodísticos, La Maldad: Sicarios, Pranes y Otros Monstruos: Crónicas de Primicia, and Los Crímenes que Apagaron la Música, whose English version, Crimes That Turn Off the Music, was published in November 2023. He is an educator at La Jornada in Hilliard, through the National Youth Advocate Program. He has lived with his family in Marysville, Ohio, since 2021.
Laurie Loewenstein
Death of a Rainmaker (Akashic Books 2018) is Laurie Loewenstein’s second published novel and her first mystery. Death of a Rainmaker was called a “superb series launch” from Publishers Weekly which gave it a starred review and named it a Pick of the Week.
She has a BA and MA in history. Loewenstein was a reporter, feature and obituary writer for several small daily newspapers. In her fifties, she returned to college for a MA in Creative Writing.
Loewenstein is a fifth generation Ohio native. She now lives in Columbia, MD.