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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Photo of Michael Prelee

Michael Prelee

Michael Prelee is a crime and science-fiction author who grew up in rural Northeast Ohio and graduated from Youngstown State University. His first published work is the Milky Way Repo sci-fi crime series published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy. He is also the author of the small-town Tim Abernathy Mystery Series, published by North Star Press.…Read More

Michael Prelee is a crime and science-fiction author who grew up in rural Northeast Ohio and graduated from Youngstown State University. His first published work is the Milky Way Repo sci-fi crime series published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy. He is also the author of the small-town Tim Abernathy Mystery Series, published by North Star Press. The first entry in the series is Murder in the Heart of It All. Lost Little Sister is the sequel.

Photo of Bryan Prosek

Bryan Prosek

Bryan resides in Columbus, Ohio where he is a practicing business attorney with the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. He enjoys board games and outdoor activities- hiking, biking, and camping- with his family. His first two novels, The Brighter the Stars and A Measure of Serenity, have been published by CamCat Publishing. His third novel, The Darker the Skies, also being published by CamCat, will be out in the November, 2022.…Read More

Bryan resides in Columbus, Ohio where he is a practicing business attorney with the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. He enjoys board games and outdoor activities- hiking, biking, and camping- with his family. His first two novels, The Brighter the Stars and A Measure of Serenity, have been published by CamCat Publishing. His third novel, The Darker the Skies, also being published by CamCat, will be out in the November, 2022. In addition, he has published numerous articles in legal trade journals and magazines. In addition to practicing law and writing, Bryan is actively involved in the fight against human trafficking. He assists several nonprofit organizations that combat human trafficking at various levels both within the United States and around the world. He provides pro bono legal services to these organizations as well as volunteer work. He also sits on the Board of Directors of three such organizations. You can find more about Bryan at his website, http://www.bryankprosek.com, taking you to new worlds.

Photo of Bonnie Proudfoot

Bonnie Proudfoot

Bonnie Proudfoot moved to Athens, OH, in 1996. She is the author of Goshen Road, a novel (Swallow Press, 2020), which was Long-listed for the 2021 PEN/ Hemingway Award, selected for Great Group Reads in 2020, and awarded Book of the Year for 2022 by WCONA. She was delighted to participate in Ohioana in 2020. Bonnie has published poetry, fiction, and short prose in many journals.…Read More

Bonnie Proudfoot moved to Athens, OH, in 1996. She is the author of Goshen Road, a novel (Swallow Press, 2020), which was Long-listed for the 2021 PEN/ Hemingway Award, selected for Great Group Reads in 2020, and awarded Book of the Year for 2022 by WCONA. She was delighted to participate in Ohioana in 2020. Bonnie has published poetry, fiction, and short prose in many journals. Her first book of poems, Household Gods, was published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, in September, 2022. Learn more at: https://bonnieproudfootblog.wordpress.com/

Photo of Jason Prufer

Jason Prufer

Jason Prufer received his bachelor’s degree in art history from Kent State University and has been employed by the Kent State University Library for nearly 20 years. He has written for the Cleveland Free Times, Kent Patch, and numerous historical rock and roll blogs. Since 2011 Prufer has also worked as publicist and social media manager for the Numbers Band, an experimental rock band formed in Kent in 1969.Read More

Jason Prufer received his bachelor’s degree in art history from Kent State University and has been employed by the Kent State University Library for nearly 20 years. He has written for the Cleveland Free Times, Kent Patch, and numerous historical rock and roll blogs. Since 2011 Prufer has also worked as publicist and social media manager for the Numbers Band, an experimental rock band formed in Kent in 1969.

Photo of D.M. Pulley

D.M. Pulley

Before becoming a full-time writer, D.M. Pulley worked as a Professional Engineer, rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Pulley’s structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel, <i>The Dead Key</i>, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The disappearance of a family member formed the basis for her second historical mystery, <i>The Buried Book</i>.…Read More

Before becoming a full-time writer, D.M. Pulley worked as a Professional Engineer, rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Pulley’s structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel, <i>The Dead Key</i>, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The disappearance of a family member formed the basis for her second historical mystery, <i>The Buried Book</i>. Pulley’s third novel, <i>The Unclaimed Victim</i>, delves into the dark history behind Cleveland’s Torso Killer and is due out November 14, 2017. She lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, two children, and a dog named Hobo, and she is hard at work on her fourth book.

Photo of Damaris Puñales-Alpízar

Damaris Puñales-Alpízar

Dr. Damaris Puñales–Alpízar is Professor of Hispanic Studies, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Director of the International Studies program, and the Executive Sponsor of Alianza Latina/Latin Alliance at Case Western Reserve University. She studied Journalism at the University of Havana and has worked as a journalist in Cuba, Belize, and Mexico.…Read More

Dr. Damaris Puñales–Alpízar is Professor of Hispanic Studies, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Director of the International Studies program, and the Executive Sponsor of Alianza Latina/Latin Alliance at Case Western Reserve University. She studied Journalism at the University of Havana and has worked as a journalist in Cuba, Belize, and Mexico. In Belize, she founded Conexión, the first bilingual and trans-border newspaper, and in Mexico, she was a correspondent for regional and national mass media outlets. She directs two study abroad programs at CWRU in Spain.

Her scholarly publications include the books La Maldita Circunstancia, Ensayos Sobre Literatura Cubana (2020) and Escrito en Cirílico: El Ideal Soviético en la Cultura Cubana Posnoventa (2012). Her next book is coming out by the National Autonomous University of Mexico with the title Códigos Rojos: Geopolíticas de la Traducción Durante la Guerra Fría, Cuba y el Bloque del Este. She has edited the volumes Asedios al Caimán Letrado: Literatura y Poder en la Revolución Cubana (with Emilio J. Gallardo Saborido and Jesús Gómez de Tejada, 2018) and El Atlántico Como Frontera: Mediaciones Culturales Entre Cuba y España (2014). She has coordinated the special dossiers “Cuba: A Cultural Prospection,” for the academic journal Cuadernos del Sur–Letras, (National University of the South, Argentina, 2021), and “Cuba: The Soviet Flavor of a Tropical Island. A Visit 20 Years Later,” for La Habana Elegante: Revista Semestral de Literatura y Cultura Cubana, Caribeña, Latinoamericana, y de Estética No. 51 (Spring-Summer 2012). Her scholarly articles have appeared in leading journals in the United States, Cuba, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Slovenia, Argentina, Canada, Peru, France and Spain, such as Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Caribbean Studies, Revista Iberoamericana, La Habana Elegante, Kamchatka, Vallejo&Co, Revista de Letras, Artelogie, Cuadernos del Sur–Letras, Teatro, Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos, etc.

In 2021, Dr. Puñales-Alpízar was one of the two faculty awardees at Case Western Reserve University for the Flora Stone Mather Woman of Achievement and Mather Spotlight Award. That same year, she won an Expanding Horizons Initiative Grant to organize the international conference “Translation Practices during the Cold War: A Multidisciplinary Approach.” In 2018, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Russia to complete research for her current scholarly project on the geopolitics of socialist translations. During the 2013-2015 period, Puñales-Alpízar was elected delegate from the Great Lakes region to the Modern Language Association. Regularly, she writes and translates for the Collective Arts Network Journal, CAN, in Cleveland, and publishes op-ed pieces in a Spanish newspaper. She was a Member of the Board of LatinUS Theater Company in Cleveland, and is the founder and president of the non-profit organization Trasatlántica. Poetry and Scholarship (https://trasatlantica.org/). She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the academic journal Caribe.