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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L. Philips
Philips went to Ohio University for a degree in music education, decided that job was entirely too noisy, and became a librarian instead. When she’s not working, she enjoys belting out show tunes when she thinks no one is listening and watching the same episodes of Thomas the Tank Engineover and over (or at least that’s what she tells her toddler son). L. Philips is a cataloger at the Chillicothe and Ross County public library in Chillicothe. She was born in Chillicothe, educated at Ohio University and Kent State University, and now raises her son in Chillicothe. She is the author of SOMETIME AFTER MIDNIGHT, PERFECT TEN, MY FAIRE LADY (under the name Laura Wettersten), and the ghost writer of the forthcoming Anonymous book, BREAKING RACHEL.
Nancy Roe Pimm
Nancy Roe Pimm is an award-winning author of many books and articles for children. In addition to Fly, Girl, Fly:Shaesta Waiz Soars Around the World. Pimm is the author of middle-grade biography The Jerrie Mock Story: The First Woman to Fly Solo Around the World. Pimm visits schools and organizations to encourage the next generation to believe in their dreams and to challenge the possibilities. She also teaches writing workshops, virtually and in-person. Pimm lives with her retired race-car driver husband in Plain City, Ohio. Nancy and Ed have three daughters and two grandsons. They share their home with two dogs, one cat, and one snake. To discover more of Pimm’s books, visit her website: http://www.nancyroepimm.com
Garin Pirnia
Garin Pirnia was born and raised in the rock-and-roll city of Dayton, Ohio. She has written about arts and culture for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Mental Floss, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Huffington Post, Eater, Paste Magazine, and many more publications. She is author of The Beer Cheese Book and screenwriter of The Finicky Cat, a short horror comedy that has won awards at film festivals and screenplay contests. Music, beer cheese, and cats―she does it all.
Allison Pitinii Davis
Allison Pitinii Davis is the author of _Line Study of a Motel Clerk_
(Baobab Press, 2017), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award’s
Berru Award for Poetry. This collection explores immigration, labor,
gender, and diaspora in Ohio’s Rust Belt. She is also the author of
_Poppy Seeds_ (Kent State University Press, 2013), winner of the Wick
Poetry Chapbook Prize. She holds an MFA from Ohio State University and
fellowships from Stanford University’s Wallace Stegner program, the Fine
Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Severinghaus Beck Fund for
Study at Vilnius Yiddish Institute. Her poetry has appeared in Best
American Poetry 2016, The New Republic, Crazyhorse, The Missouri Review,
Sycamore Review, Connotation Press, Crab Orchard Review and elsewhere.
She is pursuing a PhD at The University of Tennessee, where she serves
as a poetry editor of Grist.
Elana Pitts
Elana is a writer who has been published in 6 anthologies under Lake Erie Ink (LEI) and read at the 2017 Cleveland Drafts. Her first book, Little Wolfpine, was self-published in 2021. In 2022, she read at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). She is currently working as a program assistant, going into schools to help students express themselves creatively as she continues her work on new installments while pursuing her creative writing degree. Learn more: https://elanapittsep.wixsite.com/website-3
Doug Powhida
Doug Powhida is an author, playwright, ghostwriter, and humorist from Westerville, Ohio. His efforts include the humorous parenting book Nobody Told Me: A Guide to Passable Parenting and I Love Me. Who Do You Love?, a self-published collection of humorous stories, lists, lies, and comics written secretly online under the pseudonym HolyJuan. In 2024, Powhida wrote the script and lyrics for Normies, a full-length musical about a world where everyone is Drag, except for the Normies, people who live basic lives and perform boring tasks on stage to entertain the Drags. Powhida has published online for over sixteen years both as the Fake Dispatch account on social media and HolyJuan.com. He has scripted over twenty short plays performed at MadLab Theatre, Cannon School in North Carolina, and at The Annual St. James Tavern Shorts Festivals. Powhida has been a mentor in The Young Writers Program for the past seven years, helping high school students to craft, workshop, revise, and submit short plays that are produced at MadLab Theatre. Powhida is married to Miss Sally and has two very passable children: Greg and Annie. Powhida’s next work, Everything Hurts and I Hate Everyone: A Guide to Growing Old Gracefully, will be published in 2025.
Michael Prelee
Michael Prelee is a crime and science-fiction author who grew up in rural Northeast Ohio and graduated from Youngstown State University. His first published work is the Milky Way Repo sci-fi crime series published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy. He is also the author of the small-town Tim Abernathy Mystery Series, published by North Star Press. The first entry in the series is Murder in the Heart of It All. Lost Little Sister is the sequel.
Bryan Prosek
Bryan resides in Columbus, Ohio where he is a practicing business attorney with the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC. He enjoys board games and outdoor activities- hiking, biking, and camping- with his family. His first two novels, The Brighter the Stars and A Measure of Serenity, have been published by CamCat Publishing. His third novel, The Darker the Skies, also being published by CamCat, will be out in the November, 2022. In addition, he has published numerous articles in legal trade journals and magazines. In addition to practicing law and writing, Bryan is actively involved in the fight against human trafficking. He assists several nonprofit organizations that combat human trafficking at various levels both within the United States and around the world. He provides pro bono legal services to these organizations as well as volunteer work. He also sits on the Board of Directors of three such organizations. You can find more about Bryan at his website, http://www.bryankprosek.com, taking you to new worlds.