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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Jillian Scudder
Dr. Jillian Scudder is an astrophysicist and associate professor of Physics & Astronomy at Oberlin College, Ohio. Her previous book was Astroquizzical: A Beginner’s Journey Through the Cosmos (Icon Books, 2019), and her writing has appeared in Forbes, Quartz, Medium, and The Conversation. Learn more at: https://www.jillianscudder.com/.
Cathy Seckman
Cathy Hester Seckman is a lifelong resident of East Liverpool, Ohio, and a graduate of East Liverpool City High School and West Liberty State College (now University). She is a writer, indexer, speaker, and dental hygienist.
Arcadia Publishing released her book, East Liverpool, an Images of America title. Seckman is also the author of Weirdo World, a young adult fantasy novel. She is an indie co-author of Bad Moon Rising, a murder mystery set between Woodstock and the Kent State shootings, and an anthology, H2O Mysteries. Her short fiction has been published in several magazines and she has written hundreds of magazine articles and thousands of newspaper articles.
As a back-of-the-book indexer, she has also written more than 130 indexes, mostly for textbooks, on a wide range of topics from dentistry to terrorism to literary criticism.
David M. Selcer
David M. Selcer is a former employment relations attorney and author of the Buckeye Barrister mystery series consisting of five mysteries venued in Ohio. He is also the author of the award winning Lincoln’s Hat and the TEA Movement’s Anger and The Old Stories.
Bev Shaffer
Bev Shaffer is an author, food writer, and culinary instructor. Her weekly column “Ask Bev” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer food section and her weekly radio spot on Akron, Ohio’s WAKR’s “Morning Drive Time” feature her signature humor and her uncanny ability to create uncomplicated recipes and calm food and cooking phobias. She has developed more than eight thousand recipes on a wide variety of subjects, including seafood, sides and grains, and desserts.…
Read MoreBev Shaffer is an author, food writer, and culinary instructor. Her weekly column “Ask Bev” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer food section and her weekly radio spot on Akron, Ohio’s WAKR’s “Morning Drive Time” feature her signature humor and her uncanny ability to create uncomplicated recipes and calm food and cooking phobias. She has developed more than eight thousand recipes on a wide variety of subjects, including seafood, sides and grains, and desserts. She has also received many national and local commendations and more than one hundred cooking awards, including the Ohio Dietetic Association Outstanding Contribution Award. Born and raised in North Brunswick, New Jersey, Chef Shaffer resides in Seville, Ohio.
Margie Shaheed
Margie Shaheed is a community poet, writer and teaching artist. She is the author of three chapbooks, Mosaic, Onomonopoeia, and Playground. She is currently completing a non-fiction book, Tongue Shakers: Interviews and Narratives on Speaking Mother Tongue in a Multicultural Society.
Janet Shailer
From Janet: “I was born & raised in Grove City, Ohio, and graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1971 with a degree in Radio/TV/Film and a minor in journalism. Early in my career I worked as a broadcast engineer for two NBC-affiliated TV stations and Warner Cable’s Qube cable TV network. I was a contributing editor of Television Broadcast magazine and later editor of the Southwest Messenger newspaper in Columbus. I am the author of three non-fiction history books and one historical fiction/murder mystery that takes place in Steubenville, OH.”
Prince Shakur
Prince Shakur is a queer, Jamaican-American freelance journalist, cultural essayist, and grassroots organizer with a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio University. His words have been featured in Teen Vogue, Catapult, Level, Electric Lit, and more. In addition, Shakur is the proud writer in residence at Sangam House, Twelve Arts, The Studios of Key West, and La Maison Baldwin. Learn more: https://www.princeshakur.com/
Mike Shannon
Mike Shannon is the author of more than 20 baseball books and the editor and publisher of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine. He has written a monthly column for Reds Report for more than 20 years.
Ric S. Sheffield
Ric S. Sheffield is Professor Emeritus of Legal Studies and Sociology at Kenyon College and the Director of the John Adams Summer Scholars Program in Socio-legal Studies.
Before coming to Kenyon, he served for ten years as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Ohio. He began his legal career as a civil rights lawyer handling primarily sex and race discrimination cases. He subsequently held the position of chief attorney as head of the state’s consumer protection division.
In addition to research that has focused upon the relationship between law and issues of gender, race, and ethnicity, he has spent several years examining issues involving the African American experience in rural Ohio. He is among a select group of scholars chosen to participate in the Ohio Humanities Council’s speakers’ bureau, lecturing widely on issues of race and law as well as rural diversity.
He has published articles, reviews, and book chapters on topics including legal history, the legal profession, and African American social and legal history. He is the author of the book “We Got By: A Black Family’s Journey in the Heartland.” His current project includes completion of a manuscript on voting rights cases from Ohio in the late 1860s and early 1870s.
A graduate of Case Western Reserve University where he attended college, graduate school in sociology and law school, he has served upon various statewide policy-making and regulatory boards. During his career at Kenyon, he spent several years on the College’s senior staff as associate provost before his return fulltime to the faculty. Learn more: https://www.ricsheffield.com/
William J. Shkurti
William J. Shkurti is retired from The Ohio State University. His most recent positions have been Senior Vice President for Business and Finance from 2000 to 2010 and Vice President for Finance from 1990 to 2000. He was also an undergraduate at OSU from 1964 to 1968. Currently, Bill is an adjunct professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.