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): 2016
D.M. Pulley
Before becoming a full-time writer, D.M. Pulley worked as a Professional Engineer, rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Pulley’s structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel, <i>The Dead Key</i>, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The disappearance of a family member formed the basis for her second historical mystery, <i>The Buried Book</i>. Pulley’s third novel, <i>The Unclaimed Victim</i>, delves into the dark history behind Cleveland’s Torso Killer and is due out November 14, 2017. She lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, two children, and a dog named Hobo, and she is hard at work on her fourth book.
Mark Rea
For more than 30 years, Mark Rea has been a writer, journalist, editor and columnist at newspapers and magazines for such companies as Scripps-Howard and McGraw-Hill. Throughout the course of his career, Rea has won several writing awards, including several national first-place honors from McGraw-Hill in 2002 and 2003, and an honorable mention in 2004 from the Football Writers Association of America. In 2009, he authored the book The Die-Hard Fan’s Guide To Buckeye Football.
Rea is the managing editor emeritus of Columbus Sports Publications, a Columbus, Ohio-based firm that publishes sports-related fan newspapers including Buckeye Sports Bulletin and manages the Internet website BuckeyeSports.com. Rea and his wife, Lisa, reside in Washington Court House and have a daughter Jessica, who is currently a graduate student working on her Ph.D. in psychology at Ohio State.
Natalie D. Richards
New York Times Bestselling Author Natalie D. Richards is the author of nine “page-turning thrillers” (School Library Journal), including Five Total Strangers (2020) and Seven Dirty Secrets (2021). Four Found Dead (2023) is her ninth bone-chilling novel. Her first middle-grade novel is called 15 Secrets to Survival and has been hailed as, “a teamwork oriented update to Hatchet.” A champion of literacy and aspiring authors, Richards is a frequent speaker at schools, libraries, and writing groups. She lives in Ohio with her three children and (very) large dog, Wookiee. Visit her at http://www.nataliedrichards.com.
Lisa Karon Richardson
Influenced by books like The Secret Garden and The Little Princess, Lisa Karon Richardson’s early stories were heavy on boarding schools and creepy houses. Now, even though she’s (mostly) grown-up she still loves a healthy dash of adventure in any story she creates, even her real-life story. She’s been a missionary to the Seychelles and Gabon and now that she and her husband are back in America, they are tackling a new adventure–starting a church planting Central Ohio. Lisa is the author of several published novellas and novels. You can find her online at http://www.lisakaronrichardson.com and http://www.inkwellinspirations.com.
Mark Rigney
Mark Rigney’s stage plays have been produced in twenty-three U.S. states (including off-Broadway) plus Australia, Austria, Canada, Hong Kong, Nepal, and New Zealand. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and his published plays are available from Playscripts, Inc., Next Stage Press, Heartland, and multiple editions of Smith & Kraus’s The Best Ten-Minute Plays. His novel Vinyl Wonderland arrived from Castle Bridge in June 2024, and in non-fiction, he is the author of Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets and a Classic American Musical (Gallaudet). Nearly seventy of his short stories have found print, in venues ranging from literary (Witness, The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review) to fantasy and horror (Lightspeed, Cemetery Dance, Unlikely Story, Wyldblood, Black Static). When nobody’s looking, he adds to his collection of antique brewery items, gardens, and laments that his body won’t let him continue playing ultimate (Frisbee) tournaments. His website, which includes links to many of his (free!) online stories, is markrigney.net.
Rafael Rosado
Born in Puerto Rico and based in Columbus, Ohio, Rafael Rosado is a seasoned writer, director and storyboard artist for the animation industry. After five years honing his skills in Los Angeles, Rafael moved back to Ohio to raise his family. He is now one of the most highly sought-after storyboard artists, working for major studios such as Warner Brothers, The Walt Disney Company, Sony, Universal and the Cartoon Network. Rafael’s first graphic novel, Giants Beware!, was published by First Second Books in early 2012. His short film The Tortured Clown was acquired by and featured on the Sundance Channel.
Michael J. Rosen
In his various roles, Michael has created more than 150 books over a forty- year career. His wide range of books for young readers range from Chanukah Lights, a poetic collaboration with pop-up master Robert Sabuda (Candlewick) to Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family’s Farm (Darby Creek/Lerner), a 144-page oral history of an Ohio farm family that he photo-chronicled and supplemented with sidebars of local- and natural history.
Many of his books engage his degree in zoology, medical-school training, and his passion for nature and the creatures who share this world. For the last 22 years, he’s lived on 100 forested acres in the foothills of the Appalachians, east of Columbus, Ohio, where he spent most of his life. Workman Publishing released three volumes of heavily researched writing: his comprehensive, go-to-handbook, My Dog! A Kids’ Guide to Keeping a Happy, Healthy Dog; his eco-wise guide to freshwater fishing, Kids’ Book of Fishing; and The 60-Second Encyclopedia, a witty fact- and math-packed compendium of minute-measurements that come from nearly every subject area. Candlewick published four volumes of jos haiku with natural-history endnotes on birds, on cats, on dogs, and on horses. His latest book from Doubleday, In the Quiet, NOISY Woods, is a cumulative sound narrative of eight creatures who share his acres.
Fifteen of his books including SPEAK!, Down to Earth, and The Greatest Table (Harcourt), and Home (HarperCollins) were created with the generosity of hundreds of the country’s best-known illustrators, photographers, authors, and cartoonists as creative philanthropy. Along with several adult books, profits from these collections benefitted Share Our Strength’s work to end childhood hunger and a granting program Rosen created, The Company of Animals Fund, that awarded over $375,000 to 100 animal-welfare organizations.
Among the many distinguished citations his work have received are:
• The Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries for Chanukah Lights. (Candlewick)
• The inaugural Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance Once Upon a World Book Award for the best children’s book that promotes diversity and tolerance for A School for Pompey Walker. (Harcourt) This is a book-length, first-person narrative based on the true story of a man who repeatedly sold himself into and escaped from slavery in order to build a school for children in Ohio.
• The Ohioana Library Career Citation awarded by the state of Ohio.
• The National Jewish Book Award for Elijah’s Angel, a picture book based on Rosen’s friendship with the renowned folk artist Elijah Pierce.
• Share Our Strength’s first lifetime achievement away for his creative and devotion to ending childhood hunger in America.
Several of his books have been Junior Library Guild featured selections and Scholastic Book Club picks, while others have been featured as “Best Books of the Year” by Kirkus, CCBC, Bank Street Books, Hungry Mind Review, Essence, The Today Show, The Horn Book, Miami Herald, and the ASPCA. His works have been adapted as a PBS documentary (“Our Farm: Four Seasons with Five Kids on One Family Farm”); a family opera (composer Robert Kapilow’s “Elijah’s Angel”); and a short film (director Christopher Rowley’s “The Remembering Movies”).
Among his recent books are Sailing the Unknown: Around the World with Captain Cook, a free-verse diary based on the life of a stowaway who sailed aboard the ship Endeavor for over a thousand days. (Creative Editions)
• Mind-Boggling Numbers (Millbrook/Lerner). Ms. Mary Math unpacks a dozen doozies in a humorous, arithmetic ramp through such unlikely story problems as how long would it take to hike to the moon, how many earthworms are in an acre, and how long would it take someone to mow the lawn if everyone on Earth had the same size yard.
• Outrageous Animal Adaptations (Twenty-first Century Books/Lerner), a middle-grade guide to two dozen profiles of creatures who occupy the most extreme, hazardous, and competitive niches on the planet.
• The Tale of Rescue (Candlewick), a short novel about a cattle dog who heroically saves a family lost in an Ohio blizzard—“a lovely prose-poem adventure,” wrote Publishers’ Weekly in a starred review.
Michael has been active in professional development, writers’ residencies, curriculum development, and creative-writing workshops with readers, writers, and teachers for over 40 years, including 20 years as program director of the Thurber House, a literary center in Columbus, Ohio. His fifth and sixth collection of Thurber’s uncollected and unpublished works were published in conjunction with the humorist’s 125th birthday: Collected Fables (HarperCollins) and A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber (Ohio State University Press).
Julie K. Rubini
Julie K. Rubini loves to share the incredible stories of individuals who made a difference in the world with younger readers. Her works include Virginia Hamilton: America’s Storyteller, which received a Kirkus starred review and listed on Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books, Outstanding Merit. Julie’s most recent project was serving as the editor for Virginia Hamilton: Five Novels, a collection published by the Library of America.Julie and her husband Brad established Claire’s Day, a children’s book festival in honor of their daughter.
Julie is the recipient of the Toledo Area Jefferson Award (2015), the YWCA Milestones Award (2016) and the University of Toledo Outstanding Alumna Award (2015). To learn more, visit http://www.julierubini.com or http://www.clairesday.org
Joel Rudiger
Joel Rudinger was born 1938 in Cleveland, OH and raised in Toledo, OH from 1945-1960. He left Ohio to study in Alaska and Iowa and returned to Ohio in 1966.
A graduate of the University of Alaska, the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop, and Bowling Green State University, Joel Rudinger taught at the Bowling Green State University–Firelands College in Huron, Ohio from 1967 to 2012. In addition to his fourth book of poetry, Symphonia Judaica: Jewish Symphony and Other Poems, he published First Edition: 40 Poems, Lovers and Celebrations, I Am the Hero of My Story, and the Inuit folk-based legend Sedna: Goddess of the Sea. He started the Cambric Press in 1971 and was editor-publisher of the Firelands Review and of the Cambric Poetry Projects. Income from sales and donations to the Firelands Review were transferred in 2013 to fund and endow the Rudinger Foundation Creative Arts Scholarship program.
Joel Rudinger has published numerous poems and stories in magazines such as the New York Quarterly, Colorado Review, Cornfield Review, The Heartlands Today, The Plough: North Coast Review, and New Waves. He has also illustrated several books published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He is currently a BGSU Professor emeritus and Poet Laureate of Huron, OH, and is working on a memoir of his early Alaskan years.
Marilyn Sadler
In 1983, Marilyn Sadler created the Alistair series of children’s books for Hamish Hamilton in London, England and for Simon & Schuster in the United States. The books have been featured throughout the years in Cricket Magazine and the Book-of-the-Month Club.
Shortly thereafter, the P.J. Funnybunny collection of children’s books was published under the Dr. Seuss Beginner Books logo for Random House. “It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny” received an International Classroom Choice Award its first year. Since that time, fifteen books have been added to the series.
Marilyn has also had a variety of other characters and series published with Western Publishing and Troll Publishing
Marilyn’s television credits include two PBS Reading Rainbow programs featuring Alistair, an Alistair program for the BBC, three ABC Weekend Specials featuring P.J. Funnybunny, and a show based on her children’s book, Elizabeth and Larry, for Showtime’s Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories.
Between 1999 and 2004, The Disney Channel produced three Original Movies based on Marilyn’s book, Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century. Each of Disney’s Zenon movies had exceptionally high ratings, with Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century and Zenon the Zequel among the highest rated shows in the history of The Disney Channel. According to Nielsen Media Research, the Zenon movies reached an audience of more than 10 million viewers.
In 2004, Playhouse Disney began production on Marilyn’s animated series, Handy Manny. Handy Manny premiered September 16, 2006, as the highest rated Playhouse Disney series premiere of all time. Since its debut, Handy Manny averages approximately 2 million viewers a week, has generated consistent critical acclaim and developed a deeply loyal audience.
In 2009, Marilyn was nominated for an Emmy Award as Executive Producer of Handy Manny in the category of “Outstanding Special Class Animated Program”.
In 2015, Harper Collins Publishers released the first of a series of math-based detective stories featuring Charlie Piechart by Eric Comstock and Marilyn. Titles include, “The Missing Pizza Slice”, “The Missing Hat” and “The Missing Dog”.
Visit Marilyn at: marilynsadler.net