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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Kathy Fagan
Kathy Fagan is the author of Bad Hobby and Sycamore, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award, as well as four previous collections including The Charm, the National Poetry Series-winning The Raft, and Vassar Miller Prize-winner MOVING & ST RAGE. A former NEA fellow, she is currently the Director of Creative Writing and the MFA program at Ohio State University, and Poetry Editor for OSU Press. Her website is http://www.kathyfagan.net.
Phil Farina
Phil Farina has spent the better part of his professional career in marketing. He has always enjoyed telling a good story and, as such, began writing as a hobby. His first work, Gravesend was published in 2015 and has been well received by readers of all ages. There are now a total of five completed books in the series, the most recent of which is The Sweet Embrace of Death (2024). Phil grew up in New York and moved to the Midwest, “to get away from the hustle and bustle” of the big city. He and his wife Cathy moved to Ohio and raised two children, Rick and Chris.
Donna Farland-Smith
Donna Farland-Smith is an Associate Professor of Science Education in The School of Teaching & Learning at The Ohio State University. Her research that focuses on students’ perceptions and attitudes toward science and scientists as well as the characteristics of scientists that most positively affect the girl’s perception of scientists. She has over a decade’s experience in the classroom and previously taught science all grades K-12. She is co-author of two books for teachers through NSTA Press, Eureka! Science Alive through Scientists’ Stories and Intermediate Science Activities and Eureka! Science Alive through Scientists’ Stories and Primary Science Activities.
James Farmer
James Farmer is a retired lawyer who grew up as the son of a Navy Pilot who moved his family around the U.S. and the world. During the mid-1950’s, his father was stationed in Morocco at a time when the country was the epicenter of the United States’ cold war efforts to deter and contain the Soviet Union, as well as native Moroccan’s efforts to rid themselves of the French colonists who had taken over their country following the Treaty of Fez in 1912. By the time he left his family for college at Cornell University, he’d lived in 18 houses in 11 cities located on 2 continents; an experience which he believes has heightened recollections of his early years and the impact such years have had on his life perspectives. After obtaining his BA from Cornell University, he spent three months traveling throughout Europe and then subsequently obtained an MCRP and LLB from The Ohio State University. During his legal career working for several major corporations and law firms, his practice was focused on mergers and acquisitions. After almost forty years of drafting contracts designed to resolve other people’s problems, he decided that the best kind of lawyer is a “retired lawyer,” who now has the time to write the books he’d always wanted to write about the experience of growing up as a “Navy brat” specifically and a human being generally. In addition to his Memoire covering the lessons learned from his time spent in Morocco as a young child, he has written a soon to be published novel focused on the hurdles we all have to overcome during our teen years as we transition from childhood to adulthood.
Nikia Farmer
Nikia Monique Farmer is a single mother of two lovely boys. She was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio where she developed a passion for writing during high school. A dependable friend, Nikia enjoys supporting her family and friends in their times of strive. She also has a passion for cooking and creating.
While studying to be a nurse in 2012, God placed it in her heart to become an author. At that time, she didn’t think it possible because of her studies and responsibilities as a full time mom, but with God all things are possible. Nikia graduated in 2013 with her Practical Nursing diploma and made the decision to trust God with His plans for her life. She started to write and hasn’t stopped since. Nikia writes to encourage single mothers and women to continue to walk with God no matter how hard times may get. Nikia has also written a devotional called 100 Devotionals for A Virtuous Lady, Being a Lady and Representing Christ and Hidden Jewels, Life Set Apart and Hidden In Christ. Nikia hopes her experiences will help others that may have gone through similar experiences and that her stories will uplift the hearts of women all over the world.
Polly Farquar
Michael Fehskens
Michael Fehskens studied illustration at Columbus College of Art & Design. Dedicated to authoring & illustrating books for all ages, and of many kinds. Library assistant and bookmobile driver for Clark County Public Library.
Brad Felver
Brad Felver is a fiction writer, essayist, and teacher of writing. His debut collection of stories, The Dogs of Detroit, won the 2018 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press in September 2018.
His fiction and essays have appeared widely in magazines such as One Story, New England Review, Colorado Review, Hunger Mountain, and many others. His honors include the O. Henry Award, a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, and the Zone 3 Fiction Prize.
He lives in northern Ohio with his wife and two sons.
Kathleen M. Fernandez
Kathleen M. Fernandez, a graduate of Otterbein College with a B. A. in History, is the former site manager at Zoar Village and Fort Laurens State Memorials for the Ohio Historical Society (now the Ohio History Connection), retiring in 2004. She worked as the Executive Director of the North Canton Heritage Society from 2006-2016. She has been the Executive Director of the Communal Studies Association since 2004. She is the author of A Singular People: Images of Zoar (Kent State University Press, 2003), and has written numerous papers and articles about the Zoar Separatists for journals and conferences. She has just completed work on a general history of Zoar called Zoar: The Story of an Intentional Community, (Kent State University Press, 2019) as well as a new exhibit at Zoar’s Number One House.
Annamarie Fernyak
Annamarie Fernyak is the founder of the mindful education company, Mind Body Align. She is an award-winning community leader who lives and works to make life better in downtown Mansfield, Ohio. She is the author of The Right Side of Happiness, and is an educator, speaker, podcast guest, and writer on building resilience and living mindfully, in the present moment as the path to a life of true happiness and contentment. Mind Body Align teaches hundreds of students and educators each year how to pay focused attention, practice kindness, and share gratitude.
Annamarie is the co-author of a 16-book series for children and is the vision behind the main character, Tia, a butterfly, and Dwight, a grasshopper, two of the delightful inhabitants of a special garden labyrinth. These books teach children skills of self-regulation, how to navigate disagreement, to manage anxiety, and more. This series is set in a real-life labyrinth at Annamarie’s farm in Lucas, Ohio.