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.
For more information about our collection and programming for authors, please click on the "Authors" main tab above.
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Michael H. Moore
Michael H. Moore is a U.S. Navy veteran, whose life journey has been deeply shaped by his years of service and his love for the sea. As a sailor and war veteran, he knows firsthand the resilience, courage, and faith required to navigate turbulent waters—both literal and figurative. These experiences form the heart of Sailor’s Compass, where Michael shares the hard-won wisdom, he gained on his journey through service and self-discovery. Michael’s voice is that of a seasoned navigator and a compassionate guide, blending insights from the seas with a deep understanding of life’s unpredictable currents. Whether sharing stories of faith, resilience, or the power of inner peace, he invites readers to join him in exploring the depths of their own journeys. Through Sailor’s Compass, he offers readers more than just guidance; he offers companionship, encouragement, and a steady hand to hold through life’s storms. Learn more at: https://www.michaelhmoore.life/
Michael Neno
Columbus native Michael Neno has been writing, drawing, and publishing comic books, coloring books, zines, and minicomics for over thirty-five years. Michael has written (and also drawn) for Cracked Magazine, Caliber Comics, Ohio’s Amazing Montage Press, Silver Comics, Columbus’ Weinland Park Stories anthology, contributed to a comics anthology on Washington, D.C. history, ReDistricted, written and drawn projects for Columbus’ Wild Goose Creative, and written about Columbus history in The Columbus Scribbler.
Among the books and publications he’s published are two issues of The Signifiers, the minicomics Michael Neno’s Dream, Michael Neno’s Life-Changing Guide to Decluttering Your Comic Book Collection, What to Do When Approached by a Creepy Clown and The Toy Box. He’s also written two issues of the music review zine, Abba Zab and wrote/published a set of ten public domain mashup microcomics during the pandemic.
Along with creating graphic designs for concert posters, album covers, illustrating magazines, children’s books and freelance lettering, penciling, inking and coloring for various publishers,
he also regularly writes reviews for the website: Film Review Central.
Among the awards he has won are the Governor’s Award of Excellence in 1980 for the painting The Visit and a 2022 SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) Lifetime Achievement Award. He also received a Xeric Grant from Peter Laird (co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) for the publication of his comic book Reactionary Tales in 2001. The book featured an introduction written and drawn by Ohio-born cartoonist Paul Pope (Batman Year 100).
Megan Neville
Megan Neville is a writer and educator based in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work has appeared in West Branch, Pleiades, Poets.org, Wildness, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. She was the winner of the 2021 Trio award and the 2019 Wick Poetry Center Contest for Peace & Transformation, and has been a finalist or semifinalist for the Write Bloody Book Contest, the Akron Poetry Prize, the Frost Place Chapbook Contest, the Tupelo Press Sunken Garden Chapbook Contest, the YesYes Books 2020 Open Reading Period, and others. In 2021 received a Best of the Net nomination and two nominations for the Pushcart Prize. Her full-length poetry collection The Fallow is available from Trio House Press. Megan is also an editorial assistant for Split Lip Magazine. Follow her on Twitter @MegNev. Learn more at: https://megannevillepoetry.com/
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil (neh-ZOO / KOO-mah / tah-TILL) is the author of the New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays and Kirkus Prize finalist, WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS (2020, Milkweed Editions), which was chosen as Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year. She has four previous poetry collections: OCEANIC (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), LUCKY FISH (2011), AT THE DRIVE-IN VOLCANO (2007), and MIRACLE FRUIT (2003), the last three from Tupelo Press. Her most recent chapbook is LACE & PYRITE, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems with the poet Ross Gay. Her writing appears twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and Tin House.
Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and being named a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. In 2021, she became the first-ever poetry editor for SIERRA magazine, the story-telling arm of The Sierra Club. She is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.
Eliot Parker
Eliot Parker is an award-winning author. His latest collection of short stories, Snapshots was a finalist in short story genre by the American Fiction Awards as well as the Readers Favorite International Book Awards. He is also the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance.…
Read MoreEliot Parker is an award-winning author. His latest collection of short stories, Snapshots was a finalist in short story genre by the American Fiction Awards as well as the Readers Favorite International Book Awards. He is also the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing and his third novel, Code for Murder, was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. Eliot is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and he recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels. In 2019, he received the JUG Award by the West Virginia Writers, Inc. organization for his creative work as well as his role in promoting writers and the literary arts in his home state of West Virginia. Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. The program is the most listened to podcast program on the network. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches writing at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.
Shelley Pearsall
Shelley Pearsall is the nationally-recognized author of seven fiction novels for readers in grades 4 to 8. Her novels, All of the Above, and The Seventh Most Important Thing, were ALA Notable Books. Trouble Don’t Last was the winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and an Ohioana award winner. Shelley’s books are frequent choices for community and all-school reads. They cover a wide variety of topics including art, U.S. history, geometry–and even, Elvis! Shelley is a former teacher with a Master’s in Education and she is a frequent school presenter.
Morgan Perryman
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
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
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.