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): Poetry
Carmen Gabriel-Watson
INTRODUCTORY BIO: MY NAME IS CARMEN, AKA “LEGA”CEE”; to ‘Carry’ legs of Rare Breed out of Past Ancestry into…..” I AM WHO I AM & I AM WHO I BE !…. Into the Journey. I have raised two beautiful Intelligent girls, now women; out of that, four awesome grands I am proud of ! Currently, I reside in Saint George, SC with my second daughter. I was Born last of fourteen and bred in Toledo Ohio; Known for its automobile, Jeep and the Glass Capital of the world ; As a Writer and Author, I’ve recently published my first Inspirational book through my poetry, quotes, stories and testimonies, through the life we must live to bear Witness as “Truth Fluid” for the Soul, who believes every Closed window, has an open way out! There is a 2ND & 3RD book underway. As a Creative Writer, I enjoy utilizing my gift for Event planning, Funerals, weddings, graduations; as well as Art of any media and background in Stage Theater. A Multiple participant as 11th place Poetry finalist, public venues of Spoken word in DC, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. Completed coursework in Digital Graphics and Web Page Design, Ambassador to Heart & Stroke Association; obtained the High Level Bronze and Volunteer Ambassador awards. As a Two time Stroke Survivor, I am a Story !
David Lee Garrison
The poetry of David Lee Garrison has appeared widely in journals and anthologies, and two poems from his book Sweeping the Cemetery were read by Garrison Keillor on his national radio show, The Writer’s Almanac. The title poem from his Playing Bach in the DC Metro was featured by Poet Laureate Ted Kooser on his website, American Life in Poetry, and read on the BBC in London. He won the Paul Laurence Dunbar Poetry Prize in 2009 and was named Ohio Poet of the Year in 2014. His most recent book is Light in the River (Dos Madres Press).
Ross Gay
Ross Gay is the New York Times bestselling author of the essay collections The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy and four books of poetry. His Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and in 2022 was named an NEA Big Read title; and Be Holding won the 2021 PEN America Jean Stein Book Award. Gay is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project and has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He teaches at Indiana University. https://www.rossgay.net/
Adam J. Gellings
Adam J. Gellings is a poet & instructor from the Northland neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. He received his MFA from Ashland University & his PhD from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he was the recipient of a fellowship from the Marion Clayton Link Endowment. His poems have appeared in numerous journals & magazines including the Best New Poets Anthology 2017 & 2021, New South, Salamander, The Southampton Review, Willow Springs & elsewhere. His debut poetry collection Little Palace was released in fall 2022 by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. He currently teaches at Columbus College of Art & Design. Learn more: https://www.adamjgellings.com/
Carole Gerber
Carole Gerber is a poet and children’s book author living in Powell, Ohio. She has written nearly two dozen picture books, early readers, and chapter books.
Gerber has worked as a high school and middle school English teacher, an adjunct professor of journalism at Ohio State, a marketing director, editor of a company magazine, a member of creative teams at an ad agency and a hospital, a contributing editor to a computer magazine, and – finally! – as a freelance writer of hundreds of elementary textbooks, magazine articles, speeches, annual reports, and patient education materials.
Besides being a “Jill” of many trades – or more precisely – one trade, writing, with many incarnations, Gerber is married to Mark, the mother of two grown daughters, Jess and Paige, and “Mimi” to Sara and Tyler, Paige’s children. In addition, she sponsors half a dozen children at a time through World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children of all faiths in more than 100 developing countries. Gerber keeps their photos posted to remind her of her blessings and responsibilities.
In her free time, she volunteers as a tour guide for children at a local nature preserve and farm. Gerber also enjoys gardening, though her enthusiasm dwindles as summer progresses, and reading, mostly for her own pleasure and edification. Gerber belongs to a neighborhood book discussion group, enjoys traveling to learn about other countries and cultures, and practices yoga which, like writing, is humbling and challenging. For more information, visit http://carolegerber.com/
Elton Glaser
Elton Glaser is distinguished professor emeritus of English at the University of Akron, where he also directed the University of Akron Press and edited the Akron Series in Poetry. He is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently The Law of Falling Bodies and Translations from the Flesh. With William Greenway, he coedited I Have My Own Song for It: Modern Poems of Ohio. Among his awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council, the Iowa Poetry Prize, the Crab Orchard Poetry Award, and the Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize.
Maxwell I. Gold
Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American prose poet, author, and editor, with an extensive body of work comprising over 300 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genres and his work has garnered nominations for multiple awards including the Pushcart Prize, the Eric Hoffer Awards, Rhysling Awards, and the Bram Stoker Awards.…
Read MoreMaxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American prose poet, author, and editor, with an extensive body of work comprising over 300 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genres and his work has garnered nominations for multiple awards including the Pushcart Prize, the Eric Hoffer Awards, Rhysling Awards, and the Bram Stoker Awards. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies such as Weird Tales Magazine, Startling Stories, the recent Horror Writers Association anthology Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Chiral Mad 5, and many more. Maxwell has taught several poetry workshops and co-edited several anthologies. He’s the author of the Bram Stoker nominated poetry collection Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums. Check out http://www.thewellsoftheweird.com
Carolyn Grace
Carolyn Grace began writing poetry as a child, and has been completely in love with language ever since. Grace graduated from Berea College with an undergraduate degree in English composition and a minor in music performance. She went on to complete her master of fine arts in creative writing through the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. Grace lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, Grant, and their dog, Fitzwilliam, who appears to be aware that he is named after literary royalty and acts accordingly. Grenadine and Other Love Affairs is her debut book of poetry.
Jeff Gundy
Jeff Gundy, long-time professor of English at Bluffton University, has published many books of poems and prose, including Abandoned Homeland, Somewhere Near Defiance, Songs from an Empty Cage: Poetry, Mystery, Anabaptism, and Peace, and Spoken Among the Trees. His earlier Bottom Dog books include Rhapsody with Dark Matter and Inquiries. A 2008 Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Salzburg, he taught at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania in spring 2015. He plays 6- and 12-string guitar, and puts in as many miles as possible on his road bike and, with his wife Marlyce, on their Cannondale tandem.
His poems and essays have appeared in Georgia Review, The Sun, Image, Kenyon Review, Christian Century, Mennonite Quarterly Review, Conrad Grebel Review, Nimrod, and many other magazines. Other honors and awards include multiple Ohio Arts Council fellowships, two C. Henry Smith Peace Lectureships, Bechtel and Yoder Lectureships, a Nancy Dasher Award, a Society of Midland Authors Poetry Award, and the 2015 Simons Lectures at Bethel (KS) College. He was named the Ohio Poet of the Year by the Ohio Poetry Day Society for Somewhere Near Defiance.
Kari Gunter-Seymour
As Poet Laureate of Ohio, Kari Gunter-Seymour focuses on lifting up underrepresented voices throughout Appalachia, including incarcerated teens and adults and women in recovery. Her poetry collections include Dirt Songs (EastOver Press 2024); Alone in the House of My Heart (Ohio University Swallow Press, 2022), finalist for the NIEA award; and A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen (Sheila Na Gig Editions, 2020), winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award. A ninth generation Appalachian, she is the editor of I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices, which received the 2023 “Book of the Year Award” from the American Book Fest and funded by the Academy of American Poets and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and the Women of Appalachia Project’s anthology series, Women Speak.
Gunter-Seymour is a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University; the host of Spoken & Heard, a seasonal performance series featuring poets, writers, and musicians from across the country; a Pillars of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio and an artist in residence for the Writing the Land project. Her work has been featured on Verse Daily, World Literature Today, The New York Times, and Poem-a-Day. Find her online at http://www.karigunterseymourpoet.com, or on Instagram and Threads @karigunterseymour.