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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Melissa Landers
Melissa Landers is a former teacher who left the classroom to pursue other worlds. A proud sci-fi geek, she isn’t afraid to wear her Princess Leia costume in public–just ask her husband and three kids. She lives outside Cincinnati in the small town of Loveland, “Sweetheart of Ohio,” where she writes science fiction adventures for Disney Hyperion.…
Read MoreMelissa Landers is a former teacher who left the classroom to pursue other worlds. A proud sci-fi geek, she isn’t afraid to wear her Princess Leia costume in public–just ask her husband and three kids. She lives outside Cincinnati in the small town of Loveland, “Sweetheart of Ohio,” where she writes science fiction adventures for Disney Hyperion. Visit her online at http://melissa-landers.com.
Tracy Lawson
Tracy Lawson’s passion for storytelling led her first into the world of dance and educational theater, and enjoyed a career as a dance teacher, studio owner, and choreographer that has spanned nearly three decades. A mid-life career change has yielded six books–a four-volume series of thrillers for young adults, and two nonfiction history books based on the lives of her pioneer ancestors. Tracy’s two newest novels are in the pipeline for release in 2020 and 2021. While her body of work may seem varied, the common thread that connects all her books is her characters’ pursuit of individual liberty. Tracy, who is married with one grown daughter and two spoiled cats, splits her time between Dallas, Texas and Columbus, Ohio.
@TracySLawson on Twitter
Tracy Lawson, Author on Facebook
Elisa Stone Leahy
Elisa Stone Leahy is a queer, Peruvian American children’s author who lives with her husband and kids in Columbus, Ohio. She likes writing about characters with complicated identities. She is the author of Mallory in Full Color and Tethered to Other Stars, which Kirkus Reviews called “beautifully executed.” You can find Elisa online at elisastoneleahy.com
Florenza Lee
Florenza Lee is an author, publisher, mindset coach, transformational speaker, radio talk show host, Master Storyteller, wife, and mother. Her Children’s books focus on Social-Emotional Learning and Emotional Intelligence. The tagline for her publishing company is, “…feeding your mind one book at a time” and her books fulfills the mission. Her dynamic characters immediately capture the readers’ attention, and the lessons remain long after the book is closed. Florenza is a proud member of SCBWI, AALBC, IBPA, REACH, Inc., and an Alum of Ashford University; she attends Grand Canyon University. Several of her titles are translated for Spanish, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, and Mandarin. Coming soon are German, French, and Italian. She and her husband, CSM (Ret US Army) Trefus Lee, have been married for nearly 39 years and reside in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Their daughters, Jessica and Missy, call Las Vegas, Nevada, and Chagrin Falls, Ohio, home. Learn more at her website: https://florenza.org/
Vicki Leigh
Vicki Leigh grew up in a small suburb of Akron, Ohio, where she learned to read by the age of four and considered being sent to her room for punishment as an opportunity to dive into another book. By the sixth grade, Vicki penned her first full-length screenplay. If she couldn’t be a writer, Vicki would be a Hunter (think Dean and Sam Winchester) or a Jedi. Her favorite place on earth is Hogwarts (she refuses to believe it doesn’t exist), and her favorite dreams include solving cases
alongside Sherlock Holmes. She’s a previous acquisitions editor for Curiosity Quills Press and also writes as Tori Rigby. Visit her online at http://www.vleighwrites.com.
Leigh Lewis
Leigh Lewis is a children’s writer and poet who has been “playing pirates” since she could walk. She does her best work in loud cafes, on long journeys, or in bed, late at night while everyone else sleeps. Her adventures on the high seas have enabled her to call many places home, including Turkey, Greece, Japan, England and Russia, as well as states all over the U.S., and she eventually navigated her way back to her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Leigh spends her time there dreaming up stories for kids of all ages, buoyed by an amazing crew—her Turkish delight of a husband and their three swashbuckling daughters.
Camille Licate
Camille Licate, author of “Bree and Me : A True Story of a Rescue Rooster’s
Journey” is Bree, the Rescue Rooster’s Mom! She is the Founder of
Kids for Positive Change, a multimedia environmental education company
reaching, teaching and inspiring kids to take positive action for animals,
people and the planet, through live events and the Kids for Positive Change
television show, currently airing on WQLN PBS, and online, on PBS Learning
Media. Camille is the creator, writer and host of the Kids for Positive Change
television show, which features the KPC Team, young changemakers from
coast to coast, expert guests, and Bree the Rescue Rooster! When not on
set, Camille and Bree are on stage, as guest speakers, (or in Bree’s case
guest “beaker”) at live Kids for Positive Change school and community
outreach events.
Born in Ashtabula, Ohio, Camille always had a great affinity for animals,
writing, education and entertainment. She graduated from Mercyhurst
University, in Erie, PA, earning a degree in Dance and a minor in
Anthropology. Camille lived in NYC, where she studied and performed with
The Martha Graham Dance Company and worked as a pottery analyst for
The American Museum of Natural History. She was hired as a “dancer who
could act,” by The Shakespeare Theatre, in Washington D.C., and went on to
star in many stage productions before making the coastal leap to Los
Angeles, CA, where she worked as a professional actress and screenwriter,
making her screenwriting debut with her animated children’s film, “IZZIE’S
WAY HOME.” An animal advocate, Camille worked for Orangutan Foundation
International and traveled to Camp Leakey, in Borneo, Indonesia, to film and
study the endangered orangutan. In 2017, Camille founded Kids for Positive
Change, piloting her programs at Ashtabula Area City Schools, in Ashtabula,
Ohio and, over the years, expanding her live event programs to schools in
Ohio and New York. Season one of the Kids for Positive Change television
show, debuted on PBS stations in New York, North Carolina, Michigan,
Pennsylvania and Colorado, in 2021 and 2022, and season two is set to
debut on WQLN, PBS, in Erie, PA, in early 2023.
Camille serves on the board of Kent State University’s Rising Scholars
Program, in Ashtabula, Ohio, and is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni
award, from Mercyhurst University, in Erie, PA, for Outstanding Service to
the Community. In addition to “Bree and Me,” Camille has authored and
self-published the books, Small Shoes : Outgrowing Old Relationships and
Finding the Right Fit and Breelieve! A Coloring and Picture Book, featuring
Bree, the rescue rooster.
Camille’s three favorite things: Dogs in coats, airport reunions and vegan
donuts. Learn more: https://www.camillelicate.com/about/
DiAndra Liccardo
My name is DiAndra Liccardo. I reside in Twinsburg, Ohio. I am a mother to three beautiful children and I love spending time with my family and creating memories. I enjoy playing the flute and I am currently learning to play the guitar. I am a newly published author of a love poem book titled Butterflies that was released July 2023. My love poem book is filled with poems and quotes that I hope give you butterflies. Yes, I am on the cover of my book. My first passion in life was to be a model. I still enjoy modeling, but do it for fun in my spare time. Writing has always been a passion of mine. Aside from writing I am a passionate teacher. I have my Associate and Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education. Although this is my first book, I have two other books in the works that I am hoping to publish in the near future.
Jacqueline Lipton
Jacqueline Lipton is an attorney, law professor and literary agent/consultant whose work focuses on privacy, business, and legal issues in the digital age. She teaches on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is a Senior Agent at the Tobias Literary Agency. Learn more at: https://jlipton.com/
Robinson Lizano Briceño
Robinson Lizano Briceño is a journalist, professor, and writer. He immigrated to the United States from Venezuela in 2018. He is the author of the books Manual de Géneros Periodísticos, La Maldad: Sicarios, Pranes y Otros Monstruos: Crónicas de Primicia, and Los Crímenes que Apagaron la Música, whose English version, Crimes That Turn Off the Music, was published in November 2023. He is an educator at La Jornada in Hilliard, through the National Youth Advocate Program. He has lived with his family in Marysville, Ohio, since 2021.