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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Photo of Thrity Umrigar

Thrity Umrigar

Thrity Umrigar is the bestselling author of nine previous novels, including Honor, which was a Reese's Book Club Pick, as well as three picture books and a memoir. Her books have been published in over fifteen countries and in several languages. A former journalist, she has contributed to The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and other newspapers.…Read More
Photo of Richard Underwood

Richard Underwood

Richard H. Underwood, American legal scholar and legal nonfiction and true crime writer, is the Edward T. Breathitt Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law. His most recent book is Gaslight Lawyers: Criminal Trials & Exploits in Gilded Age New York. He is also the author of CrimeSong: True Crime Stories from Southern Murder Ballads (2016), the recipient of two IPPY Book of the Year Awards and winner of a Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Award (Bronze, True Crime).…Read More
Photo of Carmella Van Vleet

Carmella Van Vleet

Carmella Van Vleet is a former teacher who has been a full-time author for over 20 years. She's the author of over a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, for kids of all ages. Her debut middle grade novel, Eliza Bing Is (Not) A Big Fat Quitter, received the Christopher Award and was featured on multiple state award lists, including Choose to Read Ohio.…Read More
Photo of J. D. Vance

J. D. Vance

J. D. Vance is an author and venture capitalist known for his memoir Hillbilly Elegy. The book is about the Appalachian values of his upbringing and their relation to the social problems of his hometown. Hillbilly Elegy is the winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award About Ohio/An Ohioan.Read More
Photo of John A. Vanek

John A. Vanek

John Vanek is a physician, novelist, and poet with works published in numerous literary journals in four countries and showcased on public radio. He has garnered awards in both fiction and poetry, and has been invited to read his work at colleges, the Akron Art Museum, the Cleveland Clinic, and the George Bush Presidential Library.…Read More
Photo of Marie Vibbert

Marie Vibbert

Hugo and Nebula nominated author Marie Vibbert’s short fiction has appeared over 90 times in top magazines like Nature, Analog, and Clarkesworld, and been translated into Czech, Chinese and Vietnamese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, was long listed by the British Science Fiction Award and her work has been called “everything science fiction should be” by the Oxford Culture Review.…Read More
Photo of Wendy Vogel

Wendy Vogel

D. W. Vogel is a veterinarian, board game developer, cancer survivor, SCUBA diver, and current president of Cincinnati Fiction Writers. She is the author of the Horizon Alpha Series, the fantasy novel Super Dungeon: The Forgotten King, and the writing manual Five Minutes to Success: Master the Craft of Writing.…Read More
Photo of Dean Waggenspack

Dean Waggenspack

Dean Waggenspack is an author, executive resume writer, career/life coach, speaker, and blogger. He has self-published two non-fiction books: The Ledge and The Abyss: Near Death, Rescue, & The Search for Meaning (February 2024), a true story they experienced in St. Croix, the US Virgin Islands. In March 2023, Dean published Doable Change: Making Incremental, Achievable Difference in Your Career and Life.…Read More
Photo of Tim Waggoner

Tim Waggoner

Shirley Jackson Award finalist Tim Waggoner has published over thirty novels and three short story collections of dark fiction. Waggoner wrote his first story at the age of five, when he created a comic book version of King Kong vs. Godzilla on a stenographer’s pad. It took him a few more years until he began selling professionally, though.…Read More
Photo of Thomas E Wagner

Thomas E Wagner

Thomas E. Wagner is a university professor emeritusin the School of Planningat the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of books and articles on regional history, collective bargaining, and citizen participation.Read More