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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Julie Drew
Julie Drew is an Ohio-based writer and English professor who has published seven books, multiple academic and national media articles, as well as new fiction reviews. In addition to teaching creative writing at the graduate and undergraduate levels, she has offered writing workshops in the Midwest and New England.
Julie earned a BA in Creative Writing, MA in English literature, and PhD in Rhetoric and Writing from the University of South Florida. She is currently a Professor of English at The University of Akron where she teaches creative writing, cultural studies, and women & film.
Her most recent work, The Tesla Effect trilogy, is a young adult series comprised of Glimpse (2014), Run (2014), and Breathe (June 2015). The first two books in the trilogy were included on Ohio.com’s list of Memorable Books of 2014.
Julie’s novels have been reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal (her novel Daughter of Providence received a coveted Red Star Review), Kirkus, Booklist, Historical Novels Review (where Daughter of Providence received an Editor’s Choice designation), Cleveland Plain Dealer, Providence Journal, and Akron Beacon Journal.
Having grown up in Florida and then lived in Ohio for more than a decade, Julie and her husband now happily spend part of every year near the ocean in Rhode Island. She loves dogs, loves to travel and hike, is an amateur foodie and unabashed TV enthusiast, and enjoys outdoorsy volunteer work in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Visit her at http://www.juliedrew.com.
Jody Dreyer
A 30-year Disney veteran, Jody Jean Dreyer was a member of Disney senior corporate staff. She led worldwide synergy, headed Disney’s global outreach initiatives, and held various marketing positions in both the theme park and motion picture units. Among many projects, she performed a major role in the grand opening of Disneyland Paris. In 1986, she traveled the world as the Walt Disney World Ambassador. She met her husband, John, former head of Disney’s Corporate Communications, at a Disney company Christmas party. They have been married 25 years and live in South Carolina. Follow Jody at JodyJean.com.
John Philip Drury
John Philip Drury is the author of six collections of poetry: The Stray Ghost (State Street Press Chapbooks, 1987), The Disappearing Town (Miami University Press, 2000), Burning the Aspern Papers (Miami University Press, 2003), The Refugee Camp (Turning Point Books, 2011), Sea Level Rising (Able Muse Press, 2015), and The Teller’s Cage: Poems and Imaginary Movies (Able Muse Press, 2024). His first book of narrative nonfiction is Bobby and Carolyn: A Memoir of My Two Mothers (Finishing Line Press, 2024). He has also written Creating Poetry and The Poetry Dictionary (both published by Writer’s Digest Books). His awards include an Ingram Merrill Foundation fellowship, two Ohio Arts Council grants, a Pushcart Prize, and the Bernard F. Conners Prize from The Paris Review for Burning the Aspern Papers. After teaching at the University of Cincinnati for 37 years, he is now a Professor Emeritus of English and lives with his wife, fellow poet LaWanda Walters, in a hundred-year-old house on the edge of a wooded ravine.
Martha Dunsky
Martha Dunsky (pen name for Martha Caprarotta) grew up writing and drawing stories with her nine siblings. Her debut book, “Fire and Forgiveness: A Nun’s Truce with General Sherman,” is illustrated by her sister Monica Wyrick. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and graduate of the University of Dayton, Martha is a former award-winning TV reporter/videographer and producer, and retired technical editor for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, she resides near Dayton with her husband and five cats. Martha loves delving into history and finding inspirational true stories.
R.C. Durkee
R.C. Durkee is both a writer and an artist who blends her love of history, nature and the rural life into her creative projects. The sixth generation to have lived on the family’s 182 year old farm, she has raised horses, sheep, cows and crops. She is also an avid gardener.
An award winning artist, her artwork has appeared on magazine covers, in art books and in art galleries in Ohio and beyond. She has written and published short stories and essays for over twenty-five years, and her debut novel, published in 2014, is the historical fiction, RUM RUN set during 1920’s Prohibition. It has received many rave reviews including Midwest Book Review, the Historical Novel Society and the Great Lakes Historical Society. She painted the book’s dramatic cover design at the suggestion of her publisher.
RUM RUN was selected to participate in the 2015 Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus, Ohio where she participated in a panel discussion on historical fiction and attended a reception at the governor’s residence. She has done many programs on her novel and Lake Erie Prohibition history at libraries, societies and continuing education courses as well as book and writing club talks.
Her interests are historical places and buildings, classics cars, hiking and biking and star- gazing. She particularly enjoys studying 17th though early 20th Century American history and visiting related sites with her husband who shares her interest in the the Civil War. For more information about Durkee, go to her website at rcdurkee.com.
Lynda Durrant
Lynda Durrant is a nationally known, award-winning author of historic fiction novels for young readers. Her novels have received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. They’ve been praised in The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, The Hornbook, and School Library Journal. Her novels have received awards from The Ohioana Library Association, The New York Library Association, and the American Library Association, among others. Ariel Bradley, Spy for General Washington, is her first picture book. Durrant lives with her husband and son in Bath, Ohio. She has a bachelors’ degree in honor’s English and a double masters in teaching and writing, all from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Joyce Dyer
Joyce Dyer is a nonfiction writer who was raised in Akron. Her books include In a Tangled Wood: An Alzheimer’s Journey, Gum Dipped: A Daughter Remembers Rubber Town, and Goosetown: Reconstructing an Akron Neighborhood. Her essays have appeared in publications such as the North American Review and the New York Times, as well as anthologies. She has taught English and writing at Western Reserve Academy and Hiram College—where she directed the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature. She’s received prizes such as the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, the David B. Saunders Award in Creative Nonfiction, and Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards. Pursuing John Brown: On the Trail of a Radical Abolitionist (2022), her new book, is a mix of memoir, biography, history, and travel writing and begins in Hudson, where John Brown grew up—and where the author now lives. To understand her ambivalence toward this controversial American figure, she sets out on a ten-year journey to John Brown sites across the country. The process forces her to confront hard questions about America—and herself.
Marianne Dyson
Marianne Dyson was one of NASA’s first female flight controllers, the subject of her 2015 memoir, A Passion for Space. She coauthored the NSTA 2016 Outstanding Trade Book, Welcome to Mars, with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin for National Geographic. She previously won the SCBWI’s Golden Kite Award for Space Station Science, and the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for Home on the Moon. She has worked as a technical editor, published numerous articles and short stories for adults, and has spoken to tens of thousands of people about space. She is a member of SCBWI, SFWA, the NASA Alumni League, and the National Space Society. Visit her online at http://www.mdyson.com.