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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Jillian Kuhlmann
Jillian Kuhlmann spent her formative years feeding her overactive imagination with The X-Files and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
She grew up on a farm, leaving many library books out in the rain and playing pioneer after she read (a lot of) Laura Ingalls Wilder. Writing stories with her best friend during her adolescence was preferable to admitting that there wasn’t any such thing as fairies or actually mustering up the courage to talk to boys.
After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and English Literature from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 2006 and her Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati in 2008, Jillian lost herself in writing the first of many drafts of The Hidden Icon. Between edits she got married and had a baby (both of these things were awesome; the editing, not so much).
Though she still toys with short fiction and flash fiction, novel-length fiction has always been her favorite to write and to read. Juliet Marillier’s Son of the Shadows is easily her favorite book of all time.
She lives with her husband, their two daughters, and a wicked costume collection in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Julia Kuo
Julia Kuo is the author and illustrator of Let’s Do Everything and Nothing and Luminous: Living Things that Light Up the Night. She is the illustrator of many picture and specialty books including the bestselling book RISE. Julia has created editorial illustrations for publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. She has taught at Columbia College Chicago and at her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. Learn more at: https://www.juliakuo.com/.
Peter Kurtz
Peter Kurtz was born in New Jersey but raised in Mansfield, Ohio. He obtained a B.S. in Journalism from Ohio University and currently lives in Cincinnati. He’s worked as a jazz disc jockey, freelance writer, and primarily as an engineering technical writer. Kurtz’s books include Bluejackets in the Blubber Room (University of Alabama Press), praised by both maritime and Civil War historians; a trail-hiking memoir, Evergreen Dreaming; and the Nick Montaigne detective mysteries, Black Jackknife and The Shades Dripped Red, the latter of which was inspired by an unsolved true crime in Kurtz’s old neighborhood. His books have earned glowing reviews from Publishers Weekly and Midwest Book Review.
Kurtz enjoys marathon running, backpacking, reading, travel, playing guitar, and enjoying his three granddaughters. He cites his greatest achievements (besides raising a family) as completing a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, and reading all of Herman Melville’s sea books several times over. Learn more at: https://peterkurtz.wordpress.com
Barbara Kussow
Barbara Kussow is the author of a novel, PORTRAIT OF ANNIE, and two novellas, THE SPENCERS OF OHIO; AN ABOLITIONIST FAMILY IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA and THE MERLIN SUBSIDIARY. She is a contributor to WRITING AFTER RETIREMENT (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014; ed. by Carol Smallwood and Christine Redman-Waldeyer). Poetry and short stories have been published in several print and online venues; book reviews and book columns have appeared in local papers. She edited and published Still Crazy, a literary magazine that published works written by and/or about people over age 50, from 2008-2017.Barbara’s education includes a B.S. and M.Ed. in English Education at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and an M.L.S. from Kent State University, Ohio.
Stephen Kuusisto
Stephen Kuusisto is the author of the memoirs Have Dog, Will Travel; Planet of the Blind (a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”); and Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening and of the poetry collections Only Bread, Only Light and Letters to Borges. A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a Fulbright Scholar, he has taught at the University of Iowa, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Ohio State University. He currently teaches at Syracuse University where he holds a professorship in the Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies. He is a frequent speaker in the US and abroad. His website is StephenKuusisto.com.
Jason R. Lady
Jason is an army brat who grew up moving around a total of seven times on military bases from Germany to Fort Knox, Kentucky. When he’d move to a new base, Jason would star all the kids in his classes as characters in his own stories and comic strips. This helped kids from all over the country bond and have fun. Jason’s books have been accepted to the Ohioana Book Festival, the Kentucky Book Festival, and the Columbus Book Festival. His second book, Super Problems, was a Maxy Awards finalist and is IndieReader approved. When he’s not writing, Jason is into 1980s pop culture, follows the Cleveland Guardians, and has a goal to visit all the MLB baseball stadiums. Jason lives with his wife in Cleveland, Ohio. The Pure Shore Club is his 4th novel. Learn more at: https://www.jasonrlady.com/
Paula J. Lambert
Paula J. Lambert has published nine collections of poetry, including As If This Did Not Happen Every Day (Sheila-Na-Gig 2024) and Uncertainty (The Only Hope We Have) (Bottlecap 2023). Also a visual artist, small-press publisher, and literary translator, her work has been recognized by PEN America and supported by the Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband Michael Perkins, a philosopher and technologist. More at http://www.paulajlambert.com
John-Michael Lander
John-Michael Lander is creating a voice. Through writing, speaking, and consulting, he helps individuals and organizations identify the signs of grooming, manipulating, and stigmatizing of sexual abuse and how to help survivors (of any type of abuse) face the past and find their true self. John-Michael battled with finding his true self and authentic voice. As an athlete, he endured sexual abuse from coaches, benefactors, and medical team which resulted in years of PTDS, depression, anxiety, and even suicide attempts. His research, The Grooming Trifecta, provides how grooming effects everyone no matter their sexual orientation, gender, or religious beliefs. John-Michael competed in international springboard and platform diving competition. His entertainment experiences include General Hospital, All My Children, national commercials, the lead in the independent films All the Rage and Pilgrim, and originated many roles on New York stages. He taught high school English for seven years at the nationally recognized Stivers High School of the Arts in Dayton, Ohio. John-Michael presented the speech “An Athlete’s Silence” at the TEDxDayton 2018 Convention and was a Keynote Speaker at the 2019 and 2020 Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit in Washington, D.C. He is on the Board of Directors for The Army of Survivors. He has been honored to speak all over the world. He is the author of four novels: Surface Tension: Book One in the Surface Series, Cracked Surface: Book Two in the Surface Series, Spandau Ballet, and Life’s a Beach.
Melissa Landers
Melissa Landers is a former teacher who left the classroom to pursue other worlds. A proud sci-fi geek, she isn’t afraid to wear her Princess Leia costume in public–just ask her husband and three kids. She lives outside Cincinnati in the small town of Loveland, “Sweetheart of Ohio,” where she writes science fiction adventures for Disney Hyperion.…
Read MoreMelissa Landers is a former teacher who left the classroom to pursue other worlds. A proud sci-fi geek, she isn’t afraid to wear her Princess Leia costume in public–just ask her husband and three kids. She lives outside Cincinnati in the small town of Loveland, “Sweetheart of Ohio,” where she writes science fiction adventures for Disney Hyperion. Visit her online at http://melissa-landers.com.