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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Tasha Sheipline
Tasha Sheipline is a Wapakoneta native, and author of a collection of historical fiction called The Whisper Series. Her novels follow Adelia Grey, a college professor, who unwittingly finds herself embroiled in solving a series of centuries-old cold cases. An educator by trade, Tasha is an avid reader, who began writing as a creative outlet. She has a passion for developing strong characters, who learn to embrace their knowledge and personal flaws, in the context of vibrant historical settings. Her published works are sold locally, and worldwide, reaching a readership in more than twenty different countries. Tasha lives in the Shawnee area with her husband, two daughters, and two beautiful Corgis.
Jeff Shesol
A founding partner of West Wing Writers, Shesol is the author of Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court, which was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2010 and a Favorite Book of the Year by The New Yorker.…
Read MoreA founding partner of West Wing Writers, Shesol is the author of Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court, which was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2010 and a Favorite Book of the Year by The New Yorker. The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described Supreme Power as “stunning,” the kind of book that comes “once in a generation,” and The New York Times Book Review called it “riveting … revealing … an impressive and engaging book … deeply researched and beautifully written.”
Shesol’s previous book, Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy and the Feud That Defined a Decade, was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., called Mutual Contempt “the most gripping political book of recent years.” In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani described the book as “riveting … Writing in sharp, fluent prose, Mr. Shesol does an authoritative job of giving us a vivid, almost novelistic sense of both of his protagonists, while at the same time situating their political stands within a historical context.”
In 1997, President Bill Clinton read Mutual Contempt and invited Shesol to become one of his speechwriters. During his three years at the White House, Shesol became the deputy chief speechwriter and a member of the senior staff. He played a leading role in drafting two State of the Union Addresses, the President’s 2000 Democratic National Convention speech, and the Farewell Address, among hundreds of other speeches. He covered a range of issues from economic policy to international development, technological innovation, and the arts. He also helped lead the President’s team of humor writers — a team that produced the acclaimed short film The Final Days.
A Rhodes Scholar, Jeff received his masters in history from Oxford University in 1993 and graduated from Brown University with highest honors in 1991. His comic strip Thatch was nationally syndicated from 1994–1998, when it appeared daily in more than 150 newspapers. He has taught presidential history at Princeton University, where he was the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies, and at the University of California Washington Center. Shesol publishes widely under his own byline and provides frequent commentary on TV and radio. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Rebecca — a civil rights attorney — and their two children.
Check out his website at: http://shesol.com/
Heather Shumaker
Heather Shumaker is the author of books for children and adults.
Her newest book, The Griffins of Castle Cary, is charming and slightly spooky adventure for middle grade readers, ages 8-12 (Simon & Schuster, 2019). The story features three plucky siblings, a ginormous, drooly Newfoundland dog, and a bit of a ghost problem.
Heather is a nationally known speaker who frequently keynotes and teaches workshops. She speaks at early childhood conferences around the U.S. and Canada, as well as schools, libraries and writing conferences. She loves to share her joy of books and children with audiences everywhere.
She’s the author of three nonfiction books, including Saving Arcadia, a narrative nonfiction book about Great Lakes land conservation. Saving Arcadia (Wayne State, 2017) has won state and national awards including: Michigan Notable Book Award, Eric Hoffer Award finalist, and Next Generation Indie Book – Environment Winner. Her nonfiction parenting/ education books (It’s OK Not to Share, Tarcher Penguin, 2012 and It’s OK to Go Up the Slide Tarcher Penguin RandomHouse, 2016) have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Romanian, and Russian.
Heather was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. She holds a BA in sociology/ anthropology from Swarthmore College and an MS in land resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today Heather lives in Traverse City, Michigan with her husband and two children.
Mandy Shunnarah
Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is a Southern-born, Midwest-loving journalist, essayist, poet, and roller-skating enthusiast who calls Columbus, Ohio home. Their work has been featured in the New York Times, Electric Literature, the Rumpus, and more. Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland is their first book. Read more on their website, mandyshunnarah.com
Carter Sickels
Carter Sickels is the author of The Prettiest Star (Hub City Press, 2020), winner of the Southern Book Prize, the Ohioana Book Award in Fiction, and the Weatherford Award, and the novel The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury, 2012). His debut novel The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury), a 2013 Oregon Book Award finalist and a Lambda Literary Award finalist, was adapted into a feature film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Oxford American, Poets & Writers, Guernica, and Catapult. He lives in Cincinnati.
Eva Siedler
Eva Siedler and her sexy aircraft mechanic husband have built a crazy home in Central Ohio filled with almost as much neurodiversity as love. By day she wrangles two teenage boys with the supernatural ability to misplace anything, her POTS symptoms, and carpools. By night she writes funny, spicy love stories packed with strong, sassy heroines, big-hearted heroes, and tons of wacky small-town shenanigans.
Marisa Silver
Marisa Silver is an author, screenwriter and film director. She is the winner of the 2017 Fiction Ohioana Book Award for Little Nothing.
Annette Dauphin Simon
Annette Dauphin Simon is the author and illustrator of several books for young readers, including Mocking Birdies and Robot Zombie Frankenstein! A former advertising creative director, she first found spine poetry—or spine poetry found her—as a bookseller in an independent bookshop. A proud parent of two lovely grown humans and one who lives yet in her heart, Annette’s at home in Southport, North Carolina. And any place with a book. Learn more at: https://annettesimon.net/
Dottie Sines
Dottie Sines manages the interlibrary loan department at The College of Wooster, contributes to multiple regional newspapers and magazines, and serves on the board of the Wayne County Historical Society. She has won several awards for her writing, including having twice in recent years been honored as one of ten finalists in the short story contest of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, which published her award-winning stories in the third and fifth editions of its literary journal, Hemingway Shorts. Where the Stars Cross is her first novel.
Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of six novels, including Prep, American Wife, Eligible and Rodham—and one story collection, You Think It, I’ll Say It. Her books have been selected by The New York Times, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and People for their “Ten Best Books of the Year” lists, optioned for television and film, and translated into thirty languages. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Esquire, and her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, Slate, and on “This American Life.” A Cincinnati native, Curtis now lives in Minneapolis.