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.
- You are searching within category(ies): 2017
Karen Harper
A lifelong Ohioan, Harper taught English before writing full time. She is a NYTimes bestselling author who has won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She writes both historical novels and contemporary suspense. Karen and her husband make their home in Columbus but love to travel. Her author collection is housed in Rare Books and Manuscripts at The Ohio State University.
Steve Harpster
Steve Harpster lives in Cincinnati Ohio and travels the country teaching kids how to draw, create, and Imagine.
Richard Hawley
Richard Hawley grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois, before attending Middlebury College, where he completed his B.A. in political science. He went on to graduate studies at Case Western Reserve University, where he earned an M.S. in Management Science and a Ph.D. in political philosophy. He also studied theology for a year at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, as an M.A. research student under the tutelage of the theologian W. Norman Pittenger. From 1968 until his retirement in 2005, he was a teacher, administrator, and finally Headmaster at Cleveland’s University School, an independent college preparatory school for boys. In 1995 he was named the founding president of the International Boys Schools Coalition. A writer of fiction, poetry, and literary non-fiction, Hawley has published more than twenty books and several monographs. His essays, articles and poems have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, American Film, Commonweal, America, Orion, and The Christian Science Monitor and is represented in many literary anthologies. Hawley lives with his wife in Ripton, Vermont and is online at http://www.richardalanhawley.com/.
Sherri Hayes
Sherri spent most of her childhood detesting English class. It was one of her least favorite subjects because she never seemed to fit into the standard mold. She wasn’t good at spelling, or following grammar rules, and outlines made her head spin. For that reason, Sherri never imagined becoming an author. At the age of thirty, all of that changed. After getting frustrated with the direction a television show was taking two of its characters, Sherri decided to try her hand at writing an alternate ending, and give the characters their happily ever after. By the time the story finished, it was one of the top ten read stories on the site, and her readers were encouraging her to write more.
Writing has become a creative outlet that allows her to explore a wide range of emotions, while having fun taking her characters through all the twists and turns she can create.
William Heath
William Heath was born in Youngstown, grew up in Poland, Ohio, with a BA from Hiram College and a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. He has taught American literature and creative writing at Kenyon, Transylvania, Vassar, the University of Seville, and Mt. St. Mary’s University, where the William Heath Award is given annually to the best student writer. He is the author of three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led (winner of the Hackney Literary Award), Blacksnake’s Path, and Devil Dancer, three poetry books: The Walking Man, Steel Valley Elegy, and Going Places, two chapbooks: Night Moves in Ohio and Leaving Seville, a work of history: William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest (winner of two Spur Awards), and a collection of interviews: Conversations with Robert Stone. He can be found online at http://www.williamheathbooks.com
John Hegenberger
Award-winning author, John Hegenberger has produced more than a dozen books since mid-2015, including several popular series: Stan Wade LAPI in 1959, Eliot Cross Columbus-based PI in 1988, and TRIPLEYE, featuring the first private eye agency on Mars. He’s the father of three, tennis enthusiast, collector of silent films, hiker, Francophile, B.A. Comparative Lit., ex-Navy, and happily married for 48 years and counting. Active member of SFWA, PWA, SinC and ITW. His novel SPYFALL won a 2016 award at Killer Nashville.
Leanna Renee Hieber
Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright, ghost tour guide, and an award-winning, bestselling author of 16 novels and non-fiction books for Tor and Kensington Books such as the Strangely Beautiful, Eterna Files, and Spectral City series. She writes and narrates several speculative fiction series for Scribd.com. Her non-fiction book co-authored with Andrea Janes, A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist for “Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction”. Leanna’s Strangely Beautiful series became a 3-time Prism Award winner and Darker Still was a Daphne du Maurier award finalist. A licensed NYC tour guide working for Boroughs of the Dead, Leanna has been featured on TV shows like Mysteries at the Museum and Beyond the Unknown discussing Victorian Spiritualism. She gives lectures and theatrical presentations around the country at conventions and prestigious institutions such as New York University, Miami University, the Cambridge Public Library, Morbid Anatomy and more, focusing on paranormal themes and 19th century women’s history. http://www.leannareneehieber.com.
Sara Holbrook
Sara Holbrook, a resident of Mentor, OH, is the author of over a dozen poetry books for children, teens and books for adults. Her newest book is a middle grade novel, The Enemy, historical fiction. She is a frequent speaker at schools and teacher conferences all over the world. Along with co-author Michael Salinger, she is also the author of four teacher professional books on poetry, vocabulary instruction, and performance.
Dayna Ingram
Dayna Ingram grew up in Cincinnati and has since moved to Northern Kentucky where she lives with her wife, their son, and the maximum number of pets allowed by county law. She received her BA in Creative Writing from Antioch College and her MFA from San Francisco State University. Her first novella, EAT YOUR HEART OUT, won accolades from Publishers Weekly (starred review), Rue Morgue, Lambda Literary and others. ALL GOOD CHILDREN is her first full length novel, which has also received starred reviews from industry powerhouses Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, who hailed the book as “a mashup of The Hunger Games, “The Lottery,” Girl, Interrupted, and Auschwitz, with malevolent buzzards thrown in.” It was also named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2016 in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category. Dayna is currently seeking agency representation, and her book, All Good Children, is a finalist for the 2017 Lambda Literary Award in the SF/F/Horror category. Follow her @thedingram, dayna-ingram.tumblr.com, or email Dayna_Ingram@yahoo.com.
John Kachuba
John Kachuba is the award-winning author of thirteen books. His most recent book is The Bottle Conjuror, an historical fantasy novel set in 18th-century England. Haycorn Smith and the Castle Ghost is a paranormal novel for middle-grade readers set in the haunted Chateau Laroche in Loveland, Ohio. Other novels include Dark Entry, a paranormal novel, and The Savage Apostle and Women of the Way, both historical fiction.…
Read MoreJohn Kachuba is the award-winning author of thirteen books. His most recent book is The Bottle Conjuror, an historical fantasy novel set in 18th-century England. Haycorn Smith and the Castle Ghost is a paranormal novel for middle-grade readers set in the haunted Chateau Laroche in Loveland, Ohio. Other novels include Dark Entry, a paranormal novel, and The Savage Apostle and Women of the Way, both historical fiction.
John’s nonfiction, Shapeshifters: A History, was published in June 2019 and was a finalist in the 2020 Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award. Several other works of nonfiction are about ghosts and the paranormal, humor writing, and occupational safety and health.
John holds MA degrees in Creative Writing from Antioch University Midwest and Ohio University and presently teaches Creative Writing at Ohio University and the Gotham Writers Workshop. He is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Horror Writers Association, and the American Library Association’s Authors for Libraries.
John is a frequent speaker at conferences, universities and libraries, and on podcasts, radio and TV. John’s website is http://johnkachuba.com