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): Adult
Nick White
Nick White is the author of two books of fiction: Sweet & Low, a collection of stories, and How to Survive a Summer, a novel. His fiction and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Indiana Review, Catapult, The Literary Review, Guernica, and elsewhere. He is an Assistant Professor of English at The Ohio State University.
Annette Januzzi Wick
Annette Januzzi Wick is an author, writer and community connector. She grew up in northern Ohio. She graduated from the University of Akron with a Computer Science degree yet still sighs when her cell phone doesn’t work. For a time, she made her home in the Pacific Northwest until firmly planting her feet in Cincinnati. When she’s not writing, she is walking Cincinnati’s fifty-two neighborhoods or finding and making connections in the community.
She is the founder Three Arch Press, and has previously published I’ll Be in the Car (2006). I’ll Have Some of Yours (2019) is based on her award-winning blog, Find You in the Sun (http://www.findyouinthesun.com), where additional essays appear.
Her writings have appeared in the Alzheimer’s Association’s Cornerstone, Erma Bombeck Humor Blog, Grief Becomes You: A Narrative of Loss, and Movers and Makers, and have received awards from Writer’s Digest, National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Sinclair College, and USA Book News.
Annette is available for speaking events, book signings and writing workshops. Visit annettejwick.com to purchase her book or learn more. I’ll Have Some of Yours is also available for order through Amazon and major distributors.
Mark Willenbrink
Mark and Mary Willenbrink, best-selling authors of the Absolute Beginner series, have been working as a team in the publishing industry for decades. Sharing the fundamentals of art in understandable terms, they enjoy encouraging others to pursue their creative potential. Mark is also a fine artist, illustrator and teaches art classes and workshops. Mary is an author and a home school mom. Mark and Mary live with their family and two mischievous cats in southwestern Ohio.
Mike Williams
Mike Williams has used five decades of experience to help individuals, companies and organizations strategize, succeed, and grow, according to their unique vision. After working in media, marketing, and professional development, he founded Mike Williams Solutions in 1981. Mike is a marketer with a broad, unique reach.
In fall, 2021 Mike published his second book, The Road to Your Best Stuff 2.0, outlining his unique approach to achievement. The book focuses on guiding the reader through an in-depth process of choosing, entering and rising in their chosen fields.
Over the years, Mike and his company have developed unique processes to carefully assess, strategize and deliver for a variety of clients and situations. His clients have included business owners, public and non-profit leaders, public speakers, medical professionals and freelancing, high achievers, always helping to break new ground.
Mike is best known for his work with motivational speaker Les Brown. Les attributes his success to Mike’s role as the “mentor” and strategist who helped him launch and grow his speaking business to international prominence, reaching its first million-dollar-year in 5 years. Mike became Les’ big-picture business strategist in the ‘80s and continues today.
In 2008, Mike wrote and published his first book, The Road to Your Best Stuff. Mike’s new book, the 2.0 version, is an updated and more in-depth version of the initial book. So now, The Road to Your Best Stuff 2.0, allows fresh perspective and a deep dive into Mike’s insights and experience, developing the skill set and mindset for achievement.
In recent years, Mike’s role in coaching, which began in the 80s, has taken on a major focus, with clients around the US and internationally. The coaching role takes the focus from organizations to key individuals, either within organizations, or freelancing in ventures of many kinds.
Mike Williams brings more than 50 years of experience and insights, grounded in media, marketing, personal/career development and organizational effectiveness to each situation. Mike uses his know-how to guide clients through a broad range of challenges, helping them perform and/or achieve at their highest levels.
Learn more at https://www.mikewilliamssolutions.com/self-coaching.html
James A. Willis
Not since the Headless Horseman went charging through Sleepy Hollow has something come out of the Hudson highlands of upstate New York as thrilling and chilling as author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis. Fueled by a steady diet of Boo Berry cereal, Creepy Magazine and late-night Vincent Price movies, Willis soon developed a taste for the unexplained and quickly began seeking out all things strange and spooky.
When he wasn’t trying to coax the boogeyman out from under his bed for a photo shoot, Willis pondered such eternal questions as what happens to us when we die, is there life on other planets, and what possesses someone to decorate their house with 1,001 milk jugs?
In 1999, after spending more than fifteen years chasing after ghosts and visiting crybaby bridges, Willis moved to Ohio and founded The Ghosts of Ohio (ghostsofohio.org), a nationally recognized paranormal research organization. Willis has grown the organization to well over 35 members in three divisions throughout the state: Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.
In 2004, in what seemed to be destiny, Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, the brains behind the Weird U.S. series of books, approached Willis and asked him to contribute to their latest volume. To date, Willis has been involved with six books in the Weird U.S. series. He is the co-author of Weird Ohio (2005) and Weird Indiana (2008) and was also a contributing author to Weird U.S. (2004), Weird Hauntings (2006), Weird US II: The ODDyssey Continues (2008), and Weird Encounters (2010). Willis’ unique and offbeat writing style was officially recognized in 2006 with his induction into the Grand Order of Weird Writers.
In addition, Willis has been a contributing author to several books in the Armchair Reader series, beginning with Weird, Scary & Unusual (2008) and continuing with several books released in 2010: Armchair Reader Goes Hollywood, Armchair Reader’s All about Ohio, and The Mammoth Armchair Reader. 2011 marked the release of Willis’ latest collaboration with Armchair Reader, Haunted America. For 2012, Willis released Haunted Indiana, his first work with Stackpole Books. In the fall of 2012, Willis’ The Big Book Of Ohio Ghost Stories was unleashed. Willis’ latest book, Ohio’s Historic Haunts, was released in late summer of 2015.
A sought-after public speaker, Willis has given presentations throughout the United States, during which he has educated and entertained tens of thousands of people of all ages in crowd sizes ranging from 10 to well over 600. He has also been featured in more than 50 media sources, including CNN, USA Today, Columbus Business First, Midwest Living, The Canadian Press, and even the Kuwait Times. He is also currently a contributing author to Mysteries Magazine.
Willis currently resides in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and daughter, a Queen-loving parrot, and two narcoleptic cats. Visit him online at http://www.strangeandspookyworld.com.
Jay S. Willis
From an early age, Jay was fascinated by storytelling, and wrote his first books in grade school by hand using typing paper packets stapled together for him by his mother. An avid Dungeons & Dragons role-player growing up in the 80s, obsessed with Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jay’s reading and writing interests have always skewed toward the fantasy and science-fiction genres. Jay S. Willis is a graduate of both Capital University, and Capital University Law School. Jay has been a licensed attorney for nearly 30 years.
Ashley Willow
Ashley Willow lives in a small town in Ohio where there isn’t much action or drama… so she stays up late creating her own in a world of fiction. She has always loved to write and can either be found writing, reading, or somehow doing both. As an avid reader, she creates stories she would want to read. When she isn’t writing, she can be found spending time with her husband, children, three cats, and her big hairy dogs. Currently, she has at least five books published with many more to come. She is very active on social media, so make sure you follow here there as well under @ashleywillowwrites
David Wilson
TBA Graphic Novel - HarperCollins, 2024
Great Lakes Tarot Deck - Belt Publishing, 2022
Play Like A Girl Graphic Novel - HarperCollins Sept. 2022
The Everyday Web Comic Collection - Belt Publishing 2020
The Disposal of Dead Ned Feature Film (Winner, Best Dark Comedy - Poor Life Choices Film Fest)
Rust Belt Arcana - Belt Publishing 2018 SOCIAL
Instagram: @downpourdw
Twitter: @downpourdw
Vimeo: vimeo.com/davidjohnwilson
Spam Newsletter: tinyletter.com/DavidWilson Check out his website: https://www.workdavidwork.com/Read More
David Wilson assumes many roles—illustrator, designer, writer, and filmmaker. For work or speaking inquiries please contact: David@workdavidwork.com
PROJECTS
TBA Graphic Novel – HarperCollins, 2024
Great Lakes Tarot Deck – Belt Publishing, 2022
Play Like A Girl Graphic Novel – HarperCollins Sept. 2022
The Everyday Web Comic Collection – Belt Publishing 2020
The Disposal of Dead Ned Feature Film (Winner, Best Dark Comedy – Poor Life Choices Film Fest)
Rust Belt Arcana – Belt Publishing 2018
SOCIAL
Instagram: @downpourdw
Twitter: @downpourdw
Vimeo: vimeo.com/davidjohnwilson
Spam Newsletter: tinyletter.com/DavidWilson
Check out his website: https://www.workdavidwork.com/
Stacy Windahl
Stacy Windahl, Kenyon College graduate with an MBA is a wife, mother, MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) mentor and freelance writer. For 16 years, she has worked with Young Life Communications. She writes from her home along the Lake Erie shore where she and her family celebrate all things Cleveland. Stacy and Jody share a love of Young Life, pixie dust and fairy tales. Read more at StacyWindahl.com.