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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Rafael Rosado
Born in Puerto Rico and based in Columbus, Ohio, Rafael Rosado is a seasoned writer, director and storyboard artist for the animation industry. After five years honing his skills in Los Angeles, Rafael moved back to Ohio to raise his family. He is now one of the most highly sought-after storyboard artists, working for major studios such as Warner Brothers, The Walt Disney Company, Sony, Universal and the Cartoon Network. Rafael’s first graphic novel, Giants Beware!, was published by First Second Books in early 2012. His short film The Tortured Clown was acquired by and featured on the Sundance Channel.
Michael J. Rosen
In his various roles, Michael has created more than 150 books over a forty- year career. His wide range of books for young readers range from Chanukah Lights, a poetic collaboration with pop-up master Robert Sabuda (Candlewick) to Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family’s Farm (Darby Creek/Lerner), a 144-page oral history of an Ohio farm family that he photo-chronicled and supplemented with sidebars of local- and natural history.
Many of his books engage his degree in zoology, medical-school training, and his passion for nature and the creatures who share this world. For the last 22 years, he’s lived on 100 forested acres in the foothills of the Appalachians, east of Columbus, Ohio, where he spent most of his life. Workman Publishing released three volumes of heavily researched writing: his comprehensive, go-to-handbook, My Dog! A Kids’ Guide to Keeping a Happy, Healthy Dog; his eco-wise guide to freshwater fishing, Kids’ Book of Fishing; and The 60-Second Encyclopedia, a witty fact- and math-packed compendium of minute-measurements that come from nearly every subject area. Candlewick published four volumes of jos haiku with natural-history endnotes on birds, on cats, on dogs, and on horses. His latest book from Doubleday, In the Quiet, NOISY Woods, is a cumulative sound narrative of eight creatures who share his acres.
Fifteen of his books including SPEAK!, Down to Earth, and The Greatest Table (Harcourt), and Home (HarperCollins) were created with the generosity of hundreds of the country’s best-known illustrators, photographers, authors, and cartoonists as creative philanthropy. Along with several adult books, profits from these collections benefitted Share Our Strength’s work to end childhood hunger and a granting program Rosen created, The Company of Animals Fund, that awarded over $375,000 to 100 animal-welfare organizations.
Among the many distinguished citations his work have received are:
• The Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries for Chanukah Lights. (Candlewick)
• The inaugural Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance Once Upon a World Book Award for the best children’s book that promotes diversity and tolerance for A School for Pompey Walker. (Harcourt) This is a book-length, first-person narrative based on the true story of a man who repeatedly sold himself into and escaped from slavery in order to build a school for children in Ohio.
• The Ohioana Library Career Citation awarded by the state of Ohio.
• The National Jewish Book Award for Elijah’s Angel, a picture book based on Rosen’s friendship with the renowned folk artist Elijah Pierce.
• Share Our Strength’s first lifetime achievement away for his creative and devotion to ending childhood hunger in America.
Several of his books have been Junior Library Guild featured selections and Scholastic Book Club picks, while others have been featured as “Best Books of the Year” by Kirkus, CCBC, Bank Street Books, Hungry Mind Review, Essence, The Today Show, The Horn Book, Miami Herald, and the ASPCA. His works have been adapted as a PBS documentary (“Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family Farm”); a family opera (composer Robert Kapilow’s “Elijah’s Angel”); and a short film (director Christopher Rowley’s “The Remembering Movies”).
Among his recent books are Sailing the Unknown: Around the World with Captain Cook, a free-verse diary based on the life of a stowaway who sailed aboard the ship Endeavor for over a thousand days. (Creative Editions)
• Mind-Boggling Numbers (Millbrook/Lerner). Ms. Mary Math unpacks a dozen doozies in a humorous, arithmetic ramp through such unlikely story problems as how long would it take to hike to the moon, how many earthworms are in an acre, and how long would it take someone to mow the lawn if everyone on Earth had the same size yard.
• Outrageous Animal Adaptations (Twenty-first Century Books/Lerner), a middle-grade guide to two dozen profiles of creatures who occupy the most extreme, hazardous, and competitive niches on the planet.
• The Tale of Rescue (Candlewick), a short novel about a cattle dog who heroically saves a family lost in an Ohio blizzard—“a lovely prose-poem adventure,” wrote Publishers’ Weekly in a starred review.
Michael has been active in professional development, writers’ residencies, curriculum development, and creative-writing workshops with readers, writers, and teachers for over 40 years, including 20 years as program director of the Thurber House, a literary center in Columbus, Ohio. His fifth and sixth collection of Thurber’s uncollected and unpublished works were published in conjunction with the humorist’s 125th birthday: Collected Fables (HarperCollins) and A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber (Ohio State University Press).
Jerry Roth
Jerry Roth is an award-winning author of Bottom Feeders, a bestseller from Sunbury Press. Following up this success, he released a psychological thriller, On the Tip of Her Tongue, one year later. The author currently lives in a converted 1908 Catholic church in Ohio. His writing career began with his award-winning screenplay, Gray Matter. Switching gears, Jerry created the critically successful Disc Golf website, Inkslingers DG, and wrote for the Disc Golf Pro Tour in 2017. His influences on writing can be traced backed to authors such as Anne Rice and Stephen King. Jerry’s upcoming literary projects include a horror novel, Ghost from a Yard Sale, a dark Fantasy, Into the Aether, and a Short Story novel, Throwing Shadows: A Dark Collection— available now on Amazon or from Brigids Gate Press. Learn more at: https://jerry-roth-author.squarespace.com/
Moriel Rothman-Zecher
Moriel Rothman-Zecher, an Israeli-American novelist and poet, is a 2018 National Book Foundation ‘5 Under 35’ Honoree, and is the recipient of a 2017 MacDowell Colony Fellowship in Literature. His writing has been published in the New York Times, the Paris Review’s “The Daily,”Haaretz, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. He lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with his wife, Kayla, and their daughter, Nahar. Read more at TheLefternWall.com and follow him on Twitter @Moriel_RZ.
Julie K. Rubini
Julie K. Rubini loves to share the incredible stories of individuals who made a difference in the world with younger readers. Her works include Virginia Hamilton: America’s Storyteller, which received a Kirkus starred review and listed on Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books, Outstanding Merit. Julie’s most recent project was serving as the editor for Virginia Hamilton: Five Novels, a collection published by the Library of America.Julie and her husband Brad established Claire’s Day, a children’s book festival in honor of their daughter.
Julie is the recipient of the Toledo Area Jefferson Award (2015), the YWCA Milestones Award (2016) and the University of Toledo Outstanding Alumna Award (2015). To learn more, visit http://www.julierubini.com or http://www.clairesday.org
M. L. Ruscak
Born In 1982, a native to Lorain Ohio, Melisa grew up living with her grandparents Frances and James Lasure. She attended Clearview High School as well as Lorain County J.V.S. While in J.V.S she attended the Culinary Arts program graduating in 2001.
In 2011 near tragedy struck as Melisa’s health began to decline. By summer of 2011 she would need to use a cane to get around. Suffering a stroke she required a craniotomy where she suffered her second stroke. Leaving her with a partial impairment of her speech, and weakness on her right side. After surgery she would need to learn not only to walk again, but speak as well as recognize the alphabet.
In 2003 she welcomed the addition of her daughter Chyenne. Who inspired her to start to put her dreams to paper. A story she wrote after her daughter’s birth, although not published, became the stepping stone to everything else she would eventually write.
Two years later in the fall of 2013 after a divorce, she would meet the man who would push her not only to fight to regain her physical strength but to put her creative mind to work. No longer allowing her to dwell on what she could no longer do but what she could.
In December of 2014 they would marry. With determination Melisa would walk down the aisle without the need of a cane.
A year later she would begin to write “Of Lite and Darke” Dreaming to see this work through to publishing, even if she would need to publish it herself.
In 2016 she would see her dream come true. With her daughter as her editor “Of Lite and Darke” was born.
Jade Rush
Jade Rush is from Mentor, Ohio and attended Bowling Green State University. Jade has a passion for helping the planet and wants to encourage children to take action and make a change! She is debuting her second children’s book, A Recipe to Recycle. This book covers the 7 R’s of recycling since there are more steps before and after reduce, reuse, and recycle. Stay up to date with Jade on Facebook and Instagram @greenadventurespublishing or at greenadventurespublishing.com
Philip Craig Russell
Over the last forty years, illustrator, artist, and graphic novelist Philip Craig Russell, also known as P. Craig Russell, or by the acronym he often signs under: PCR, has run the gamut in comics, illustrating everything from Batman, Star Wars, and Conan to a series of adaptations of classic operas, a Jungle Book series, and an ongoing series adapting the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde.…
Read MoreOver the last forty years, illustrator, artist, and graphic novelist Philip Craig Russell, also known as P. Craig Russell, or by the acronym he often signs under: PCR, has run the gamut in comics, illustrating everything from Batman, Star Wars, and Conan to a series of adaptations of classic operas, a Jungle Book series, and an ongoing series adapting the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde. Russell’s graphic novel adaptations of Neil Gaiman novels, including Sandman: The Dream Hunters and Coraline have received high acclaim. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. After establishing a name for himself at Marvel on Killraven and Dr. Strange, he went on to become one of the pioneers in opening new vistas in the field of graphic novels. Among his other works are the adaptations of operas by Mozart, The Magic Flute, Strauss, Salome, and Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung. Russell’s artwork has been noted for its lush line, attention to detail, and classical themes with a heavy influence from the Art Nouveau and Romantic fine art traditions. Russell was born in Wellsville, Ohio and is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in painting. He collects Fiestaware and currently makes his home in Kent, Ohio. View Russell’s artwork on his website, http://www.artofpcraigrussell.com/.
Blythe Russo
Blythe Russo is an author-illustrator currently living just outside Cincinnati, Ohio. When she’s not making books, you can find her sewing, building puppets, or in the kitchen on a never-ending quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Visit her at https://www.blytherussoillustration.com/
