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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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Photo of Julia Kuo

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.…Read More

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/.

Photo of Peter Kurtz

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.…Read More

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

Photo of Barbara Kussow

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).…Read More

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.

Photo of Stephen Kuusisto

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.…Read More

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.

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