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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Bob Hunter
Bob Hunter was a sportswriter for the Columbus Dispatch for more than forty years, including the last twenty-four as sports columnist. He is the author of nine books, including Thurberville, Saint Woody, Chic and A Historical Guidebook to Old Columbus. He is a native of Hamilton, Ohio, and a graduate of Ohio University.
Annie Hunter Eriksen
Annie Hunter Eriksen is from Wooster, Ohio. Originally from Columbus, she came for the College of Wooster (’13), but stayed after falling in love with Wooster’s undeniable charm and realizing this town has the best ice cream in the world. Annie lives and breathes comics, cats, and coffee and had her first son in November 2022, whom she named after a superhero. Along Came a Radioactive Spider is about famed Marvel artist Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man. This is her second book. Find Annie at http://www.aheriksen.com and on Instagram at @ah_eriksen.
Ryan Huntley
Ryan Huntley is a recent Summa Cum Laude graduate of Upper Arlington High School in Ohio, where he lives with his family in a house his Maltese, Rudy, is kind enough to share with them. A member of the National Honor Society and the Cum Laude Society, an International Baccalaureate Diploma candidate, and a National Merit Finalist, Ryan is pursuing a higher education in the field of computer science with an emphasis on game design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently studying Japanese and hopes one day to live and work in Japan. When not involved in academic endeavors, Ryan can be found performing with various choral ensembles, traveling the world, and playing games until just a bit too late at night.
Rebe Huntman
Rebe Huntman is the author of My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic & Miracle (Monkfish Book Publishing Company, February 18, 2025). She is a memoirist, essayist, dancer, teacher, and poet who writes at the intersections of feminism, world religion and spirituality. For over a decade she directed Chicago’s award-winning Danza Viva Center for World Dance, Art & Music and its dance company, One World Dance Theater. Huntman collaborates with native artists in Cuba and South America, has been featured in Latina Magazine, Chicago Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune, and has appeared on Fox and ABC. A Macondo fellow and recipient of an Ohio Individual Excellence award, Huntman has received support for this book from The Ohio State University, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, PLAYA Residency, Hambidge Center, and Brush Creek Foundation. She lives in Delaware, Ohio and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Allegra Hyde
Allegra Hyde is the author of the story collection The Last Catastrophe, an Editors’ Choice selection at The New York Times. Her debut novel Eleutheria was named a “Best Book of 2022” by The New Yorker, shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, and named a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award. Her first story collection, Of This New World, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Hyde has received four Pushcart Prizes and an O. Henry Prize. Her work has also been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Travel Writing, The Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net. Her fiction, nonfiction, and humor writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and BOMB, among other venues. Hyde has received fellowships and grants from the MacDowell Artist Residency, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, the Lucas Artist Residency Program, the Jentel Foundation, The Studios at Key West, VCCA, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, and elsewhere. She lives and writes with her partner, the novelist Ariel Delgado Dixon. https://www.allegrahyde.com/
Juliette Hyland
Juliette Hyland believes in strong coffee, hot drinks and happily ever afters! She lives in Ohio, USA, with her prince charming, who has patiently listened to many rants regarding characters failing to follow the outline. When not working on fun and flirty happily ever afters, Juliette can be found spending time with her beautiful daughters, giant dogs or sewing uneven stitches with her sewing machine.
Aiko Ikegami
Aiko was born in Tokyo, Japan. Since a young age she has loved drawing, painting, and creating stories. At age of 6 she has started learning oil painting. In 1993 Aiko came to the United States where she has studied psychology at Arizona State University. She continued her education at the University of Texas at Austin where she receiving a Ph.D in Neuropharmacology. She worked as a neuropharmacologist and did research on brain chemistry. After working as a neuropharmacologist for years, she followed her heart and decided making picture books. Aiko lives in Ohio with her dog and cat. Aiko also loves gardening and playing cello.
Ryan Ireland
Ryan Ireland was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1984. He lives in the village of Alpha, Ohio with his wife and three children. He is the Publicity and Marketing Officer at Greene County Public Library, and a strong advocate for public libraries across the country—his writing on this has appeared in Public Library Quarterly and VOYA. His fiction has been published in Fogdog Review, Seems, and Writing on the Edge. In 2009 he was recognized by Glimmer Train as one of the 25 Best New Writers. Beyond the Horizon is his first novel. More about Ryan and his advocacy of libraries can be found at http://www.ryangireland.com
Manuel Iris
Manuel Iris (Mexico, 1983). Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Cincinnati, Ohio (2018-2020). He received the “Merida” National award of poetry (Mexico, 2009) for his book Notebook of dreams, and the Rodulfo Figueroa Regional award of poetry for his book The disguises of fire (Mexico, 2014). In 2016two different anthologies of his poetic work were published: The naked light, in Venezuela; and Before the mystery, in El Salvador. His first bilingual anthology of poems, Traducir el silencio/Translating silence was published in New York in 2018. This book won two different awards in the International Latino Book Awards in Los Angeles, California, in that same year. In 2021, he became a member of the prestigious System of Art Creators of Mexico (Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte). His latest book “the parting present/Lo que se ira” received the Reader’s choice award from the Ohioana Library Association, and was also recognized at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards. Learn more at: https://manueliris.com/
Janet Irvin
J. E. (Janet) Irvin is a career educator and the award-winning author of A PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT, THE DARK END OF THE RAINBOW, THE RULES OF THE GAME, and THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF ROSE STONE . Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in a variety of print and online journals, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Oyez Review, FLIGHTS, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. Irvin holds degrees from Ohio University, the University of Dayton, and the University of Cincinnati. An avid hiker and canoeist, Irvin resides with her husband in southwestern Ohio on the edge of a nature park.