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
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. The Father Jake Austin Mystery Series features a Roman Catholic priest protagonist (a 21st century Father Brown). DEROS (book one), Miracles (book two), Absolution (book three), and his poetry book, Heart Murmurs: Poems, are available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com and fine bookstores.
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. She also writes poetry, comics, and computer games. By day she is a computer programmer in Cleveland, Ohio. Learn more at Wikipedia or at: https://www.marievibbert.com/
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. Learn more at: https://wendyvogelbooks.com/
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. In 2019, he delivered a TedX Dayton Talk on “Rethinking Retirement”.
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. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College and in Seton Hill University’s MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program. He hopes to continue writing and teaching until he keels over dead, after which he wants to be stuffed and mounted, and then placed in front of his computer terminal. For more ifnformation about Waggoner, check out his website at timwaggoner.com.
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.
Sara Moore Wagner
Sara Moore Wagner is the winner of the 2021 Cider Press Review Editors’ Prize for her manuscript Swan Wife (expected late summer 2022). She the author of the poetry manuscript Hillbilly Madonna (2020 Driftwood Press Manuscript prize winner), a 2021 National Poetry Series Finalist, and the recipient of a 2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation award. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies including Sixth Finch, Waxwing, Nimrod, Beloit Poetry Journal, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. She lives in West Chester Ohio with her husband Jon, and children Cohen, Daisy, and Vivienne. Learn more at: https://www.saramoorewagner.com/
Christina Wald
Christina Wald is a product designer and illustrator in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has illustrated over 50 picture books and is obsessed with urban sketching and travel.
She started out illustrating professionally for games including the Star Wars role playing game series, Middle Earth: Wizards, A Lord of the Rings collectable card game, Dragon Magazine, BattleTech, Dune and many others.
One of her latest books, Cao Chong Weighs and Elephant by Songju Ma Daemicke, recently was given an NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book Award, included on the NSTA Best STEM Books list for 2018, and recieved a Mathical Award. Other recent highlights include: Paws, Hoofs, and Wings Animal Heroes of the San Diego Zoo by Shari Lyon, the official children’s book to celebrate the zoo’s 2016 centennial, Camas and Sage: A Story of Bison Life on the Prairie by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent for the American Prairie Reserve ; The Wild Life of Elk by Donna Love (A joint venture between the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the National Forest Service) and many others.
Many of her books are about animals and ecosystems and she often travels and consults with scientists for research.
She has done toy design development for National Geographic, Encyclopedia Britannica, and Discovery Kids. She even has done an occasional animation background and package art for GI Joe. She is currently developing a graphic novel.
She started urban sketching in 2011 and helps coordinate the Cincinnati chapter and is on the social media team of the international organization.
She graduated from the University of Cincinnati DAAP with a degree in Industrial Design and teaches illustration at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University.
Corrinne Walker
Corrinne Walker, a certified life coach, and motivational speaker helps individuals understand that life experiences that hurt do not always mean that they are wrong. That everyone has the power to choose to see difficulties as signs that a few battles need to take place, that there is a need to clear some personal obstacles, so some space can be created for answers, light, and love to enter their life.
Also Corrinne Walker is the writer of Corrinne Walker is out of this world part I and II, Lashonna Cargin Dealing with OCD Revised Edition, and Lashonna Cargin Dividived, Lashonna Cargin Dealing With OCD part I and II, Lashonna Cargin Dealing With OCD part I and II combined and last Adventures of Sneaky & Lashonna.
You can visit her website at https://walker-and-associate-life-coaching.business.site