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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Ian Adams
Ian Adams is a landscape photographer, writer and educator specializing in Ohio’s natural, rural, historical and garden areas. Twenty-one books of his color photography have been published, including his most recent, A Photographer’s Guide to Ohio – Volume 2, which was released by Ohio University Press in April, 2015 and a centennial edition of Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, published by the University of Akron Press in May, 2015. Ian has produced more than 60 Ohio calendars and conducted over 200 seminars and workshops in nature, garden, and digital photography throughout North America. He is an adjunct lecturer at Ohio State University’s Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster, Ohio where he teaches digital photography. Ian shares a home in Cuyahoga Falls with two cats, Fuji and Spicer, and an assortment of cameras. Find him online at http://ianadamsphotography.com.
Gloria Adams
Gloria G. Adams spent most of her career as a children’s librarian and storyteller. She has been published in books and magazines, along with a picture book, Ah-Choo! with co-author Lana Wayne Koehler, published by Sterling Children’s Books in 2016. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and she has three non-fiction titles published through Rosen, Enslow, and Greenhaven Press. She is a partner, with author Jean Daigneau, in a manuscript editing company, Two-4-One Kid Critiques, LLC.
Jeff Alt
Jeff Alt is a celebrated author and avid outdoor enthusiast. His other books include: Four Boots-One Journey, Get Your Kids Hiking, and A Walk for Sunshine. Each of his books are award-winning and have received high praise from readers and educators all over the world. Jeff is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI). Jeff’s expertise and books have been featured in Scholastic Parent & Child, Backpacker, Discoverchannel.com, ESPN, Hallmark Channel and more. He has walked the Appalachian Trail, the John Muir Trail with his wife; he carried his 21-month old daughter across Ireland, and his son was on the Appalachian Trail at six weeks of age. Jeff has spent over 20 years perfecting his ability to engage kids to learn as an educator. He has now combined his educational experience with his outdoor talents in writing The Adventures of Bubba Jones series. Learn more at: http://www.jeffalt.com
Pamela R. Anderson
Pamela R. Anderson is a traveler, blues music lover, yoga practitioner, and former public radio fundraiser who grew up in Ohio’s Steel Valley. Her chapbook Just the Girls: A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies; A Drift of Honeybees was published by The Poetry Box in 2020; Finishing Line Press published her chapbook Widow Maker in 2021, and Kelsay Books/Daffydown Dilly Press published her book of poems for children: The Galloping Garbage Truck. Much of her writing focuses on the Holocaust and her father’s WWII service in the 82nd Airborne; her Holocaust poem “My Brother’s Coat” won an AWP Intro Journals Project award. Anderson’s poetry has appeared in JennyMag.org, Atticus Review, Volney Road Review, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the NEOMFA Program.
Mindee Arnett
Mindee Arnett is the author of the critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller Avalonas well the Arkwell Academyseries. An avid eventer, she lives on a farm near Dayton, Ohio with her husband, two kids, and assorted animals. When not telling tales of magic, the supernatural, or outer space, she can be found on a horse, trying to jump anything that will stand still. Onyx and Ivoryis her first foray into high fantasy. Find her on the web at mindeearnett.com
Patricia Averbach
Patricia Averbach, a Cleveland native, is the former director of the Chautauqua Writers’ Center in Chautauqua, New York. Her first novel, Painting Bridges dealt with historic issues in deaf education. It was described by Michelle Ross, critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as “an intelligent, introspective and moving novel.” Averbach was the 2013 winner of the London based Lumen/Camden Prize for Poetry. Her poetry chapbook, Missing Persons, was featured in the Times of London Literary Supplement as one of the top poetry pamphlets of the year. For more on Averbach go to her website at patriciaaverbach.com.
Connie Bergstein Dow
Connie Bergstein Dow began dancing when she was four, and has been dancing ever since. After attending Denison University, and earning an MFA from the University of Michigan, she danced professionally in the US, Venezuela, and Guatemala. During her career as a dance educator, she has taught dance to three-year-olds, to senior adults in wheelchairs, and every age in between. In addition to her picture book From A to Z with Energy! (Free Spirit Publishing, 2019), she has written two books for teachers published by Redleaf Press: Dance, Turn, Hop, Learn! Enriching Movement Activities for Preschoolers, and One, Two, What Can I Do? Dance and Music for the Whole Day. She also writes articles for magazines and journals, and verses for Highlights magazines.
Jenn Bishop
Jenn Bishop is the author of five novels for young readers, including the Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner Things You Can’t Say and 2023 & 2024 Choose to Read Ohio title Where We Used to Roam. Her books have been named Junior Library Guild selections and Bank Street College of Education best books and have been finalists for state book awards. She currently calls Cincinnati, Ohio, home. What team do you think she roots for?
Oris Regina Bond
Armani Borden
Born in Detroit and raised in Ohio, Armani Borden is a graduate of Bowling Green State University. She received a bachelor’s degree in film production, loves action and comedy films, and books and music are her life. She listens, sings, and plays music every day. Borden grew up playing by herself in her room, which helped her develop such a big and vivid imagination.