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): Author/Illustrator
Tracy Subisak
Tracy Subisak is the Taiwanese and Polish American author-illustrator of award-winning Jenny Mei Is Sad. She has also illustrated many books, including: This Book Is Not For You!, by Shannon Hale, and Amah Faraway, by Margaret Chiu Greanais. Tracy lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, her dog Lala, and many, many plants. You can visit her online at tracysubisak.com and on Instagram at @tracysubisak.
Sam Subity
Sam Subity loves writing stories that explore the magic and wonder of being a kid and is thrilled to share his writing with readers everywhere—both the young in age and the young at heart. When he’s not writing, you might find him running the trails of northern California where the endless, winding miles past fog and ocean inspire stories of adventure and mystery. Or he might be mowing his lawn. Because that’s what adults sometimes have to do. But in either case, Sam is very likely imagining himself fighting mythical creatures or at the prow of a dragon ship feeling the wind and sea spray on his face alongside his own Viking queen and their two Vikelets. His greatest hope is that in reading his books, you too may be transported to another place where, for a little while, you can exchange the ordinary for the extraordinary. https://www.samsubity.com
Joe Sutphin
Joe Sutphin is an illustrator and cartoonist of books for young readers. His work includes the Eisner Award winning Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, based on the beloved book by Richard Adams, as well as the re-envisioned, illustrated classics Little Pilgrim’s Progress and Little Christmas Carol. Joe lives in Central Ohio with his wife Gina and five amazing cats.…
Read MoreJoe Sutphin is an illustrator and cartoonist of books for young readers. His work includes the Eisner Award winning Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, based on the beloved book by Richard Adams, as well as the re-envisioned, illustrated classics Little Pilgrim’s Progress and Little Christmas Carol. Joe lives in Central Ohio with his wife Gina and five amazing cats. Learn more at joesutphin.com
Paul M. Sutter
Paul M. Sutter is the cosmological researcher and community outreach coordinator for the Department of Astronomy and The Ohio State University. He is also the chief scientist at the COSI Science Center (Center of Science and Industry). As a new, fresh voice in science communication and an astrophysicist, writer, speaker, producer, and on-air host of podcasts and TV programs, Sutter strives to bring science to new audiences. He is the creator of the Ask a Spaceman! podcast, a contributing editor to Space.com, and the founder of Active Galaxy Productions, a company that blends science with art in groundbreaking ways. Sutter has authored over sixty academic papers on topics ranging from the earliest moments of the Big Bang, to the emptiest places in the universe, to novel methods for detecting the first stars. He has given over 100 seminars, colloquia, and conference talks at institutions around the world. Watch him on YouTube, listen to him on Space Radio, and follow him on social media. Details can be found at http://www.pmsutter.com/outreach.
Jordan Riley Swan
Jordan Riley Swan is a wild word hunter living in the far and dangerous reaches of rural Ohio. He spends his nights tracking down big-game stories, capturing them in paper cages, and training them to be better tales. The Heart’s Bidding was the first novel he’d dared to use the keys of his typewriter to release back into the wild.
Nita Sweeney
Nita Sweeney is the bestselling wellness author of the award-winning running and mental health memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink and co-creator of the writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration & Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving. Her third book, Make Every Move a Meditation was featured in The Wall Street Journal. Her most recent book, A Daily Dose of Now: 365 Mindfulness Meditation Practices for Living in the Moment, was released in fall of 2023. A mindfulness coach, certified meditation leader and mindfulness teacher, mental health advocate, ultramarathoner, retired attorney, and former assistant to writing practice originator Natalie Goldberg, Nita founded the groups Mind, Mood, and Movement to support well-being through meditation, exercise, and writing practice; and The Writer’s Mind, to share using writing practice to produce publishable work. For twenty years, Nita published the central Ohio writing resource, Write Now Columbus. She lives in central Ohio with her husband, Ed, and their yellow Labrador retriever, Scarlet.
Download your free copy of Nita’s eBook, Three Tools for a Happier, Healthier Mind, or the infographic, Meditation Myths, on Nita’s website.
Dave Szalay
Dave Szalay is an award winning illustrator, working author, and college professor. Dave, his wife, and three cats live along a steam that runs through the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. They have two adult sons and a granddaughter. http://www.daveszalay.com
William Tabac
- William L. Tabac is a practicing lawyer and emeritus professor of law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland Marshall College of Law. He has published several law journal articles on a wide range of subjects and written about legal matters for The New York Times Magazine and The Plain Dealer. He was the producer and host of The Law and You, an award-winning Cleveland radio program, and a legal commentator for WKYC-TV.
– Talzoya
Talzoya is a nuclear physicist by education and the author of numerous scientific publications. “Of Lovers, Lonely Hearts, and the Psychotic Spell Called Falling in Love” is the result of both an introspective effort and the learning derived from published works by other experts in relation to the topic of falling in love, ranging from fiction and nonfiction books to peer-reviewed scientific publications. Talzoya takes pride in distilling knowledge from fields as distinct as sexology, biology, biochemistry, evolutionary psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience into a readable format accessible to all, so that we may all benefit from the findings of science.
Don Tassone
After a long career in the corporate world, Don Tassone has returned to his creative writing roots. He is the author of two novels and nine short story collections. He and his wife Liz live in Loveland, Ohio. They have four children. Visit him at https://www.dontassone.com.