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): Fiction
Christina Dendy
Christina Dendy is a children’s book author with a wide range of experience in the K-12 educational market, particularly in history and other social sciences. Her published works include the picture books Hide and Shh! (April 2023) and The Wall and the Wild (September 2021). When not writing and reading, Christina can be found exploring various rabbit holes in Dayton, Ohio, with her husband, three children, and their furry friends. She is represented by Daniel Cramer of Page Turner Literary Agency. Find her online at https://www.christinadendywrites.com/ or follow her on Twitter @cdendy76.
Sally Derby
Sally Derby is the author of numerous children’s books. The inspiration for No Mush Today came from a young girl at Derby’s church, and from her own childhood dislike of cornmeal mush. Derby and her husband live in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the winner of the 2017 Juvenile/Middle Grade Ohioana Book Award for Jump Back, Paul.
Jen Devon
Jen Devon writes cinematic contemporary romances about complicated, imperfect people finding their perfect match.A former biology academic and lecturer, she currently works in the tech industry and dreams of writing full-time. She’s an avid gardener, photographer, and boardgamer, a thrift store enthusiast and unapologetic nerd. She’s a mom of five (three kids, two rescue mutts) and lives in central Ohio with her engineer husband. https://jendevon.com/
Robb Forman Dew
Robb Forman Dew was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For the past thirty years she has lived in Williamstown, MA, where she lives with her husband, who is professor of history at Williams College. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Dew is the author of the novels Dale Loves Sophie to Death, for which she received the National Book Award; The Time of Her Life; Fortunate Lives; The Evidence Against Her; and, most recently, The Truth of the Matter; as well as a memoir, The Family Heart.
Read MoreRobb Forman Dew was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For the past thirty years she has lived in Williamstown, MA, where she lives with her husband, who is professor of history at Williams College. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Dew is the author of the novels Dale Loves Sophie to Death, for which she received the National Book Award; The Time of Her Life; Fortunate Lives; The Evidence Against Her; and, most recently, The Truth of the Matter; as well as a memoir, The Family Heart.
Srirupa Dhar
Srirupa Dhar is Indian by birth and has been living in the United States since 1998. She completed her M.A. and M.Phil. from University of Calcutta, India. She has a third Master’s degree in English with Technical Writing Certification from University of Alabama in Huntsville, U.S.A. Srirupa taught as a young college lecturer in Calcutta, West Bengal and as a junior high school teacher in Columbus, Ohio. She has also worked as an interpreter in Columbus. She is a voracious reader and takes an avid delight in many forms of art. Currently, she is a writer, primarily of fiction. Her debut novel called “For A Drop Of Rice-Water” has recently been published by a traditional publishing house. Some of her short stories have been published in “The Bangalore Review”, “The Seattle Star”, “The Statesman” and “Café Dissensus.” One of her short stories has been published in “Muffled Moans Unleashed”, an anthology on child abuse and sexual violence. Some of her nonfictional works have appeared in collections of essays. One of her distinguished nonfictional articles called “Self-realization of Women through Binaries in Chokher Bali and Ghare Baire” has been published in “Reading Rabindranath: The Myriad Shades of a Genius.” Occasionally, Srirupa acts in plays in Columbus. She is part of an amateur dramatic society.
Meredith Doench
Meredith Doench is the author of the Luce Hansen thriller series and Whereabouts Unknown. Her writing has also appeared in many literary journals. She is a board member of Mystery Writers of America, Midwest Chapter, and is a senior lecturer of creative writing, literature, and composition at the University of Dayton in Ohio. For more information about this author and to view book purchase information, visit http://www.meredithdoench.com
Anthony Doerr
Anthony Doerr was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the author of the story collections The Shell Collector and Memory Wall, the memoir Four Seasons in Rome, and the novels About Grace, All the Light We Cannot See, which was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Cloud Cuckoo Land, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award and is currently a finalist for Novel of the Year in the British Book Awards.…
Read MoreAnthony Doerr was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the author of the story collections The Shell Collector and Memory Wall, the memoir Four Seasons in Rome, and the novels About Grace, All the Light We Cannot See, which was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Cloud Cuckoo Land, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award and is currently a finalist for Novel of the Year in the British Book Awards.
Doerr’s short stories and essays have won five O. Henry Prizes and been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, New American Stories, The Best American Essays, The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, and many other places. His work has been translated into over forty different languages and won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Rome Prize, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, an Alex Award from the American Library Association, the National Magazine Award for Fiction, four Pushcart Prizes, three Pacific Northwest Book Awards, four Ohioana Book Awards, the 2010 Story Prize, which is considered the most prestigious prize in the U.S. for a collection of short stories, and the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. All the Light We Cannot See was a #1 New York Times bestseller, remained on the New York Times Bestseller List for over 200 weeks, and is being adapted as a limited series by Netflix.
Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two sons. Though he is often asked, as far as he knows he is not related to the late writer Harriet Doerr. Check out his website: https://www.anthonydoerr.com/
Connie Bergstein Dow
Dance has always been a part of Connie Bergstein Dow’s life. Her parents enrolled her in dance classes when she was four years old, because she was continually falling down and bumping into things. Through dance, she gained strength, confidence, and a voice for self-expression. This introduction led her to a lifelong career.
Connie grew up in Cincinnati, attended Denison University, and earned an MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan. She danced professionally in the US, Venezuela, and Guatemala. During her long career as a dance educator, she has taught dance to three-year-olds, to senior adults in wheelchairs, and to students every age in between. She has written two books for teachers about integrating movement into the early childhood classroom, articles for magazines and journals, and verses for Highlights magazines. From A to Z with Energy! is Connie’s first picture book. She continues to share her passion for dance by writing, volunteering, visiting schools and libraries, and offering movement workshops to early childhood professionals. She feels strongly that dance and the other arts are essential and transformational forces in our lives.
Sharon M. Draper
Sharon M. Draper is a professional educator as well as an accomplished writer. She has been honored as the National Teacher of the Year, is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Awards, and is a New York Times bestselling author, with Out of my Mind staying on the list for almost two years. She was selected as Ohio’s Outstanding High School Language Arts Educator, Ohio Teacher of the Year, and was chosen as a NCNW Excellence in Teaching Award winner. She is a Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award winner, and was the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence for the Taft Museum. She is a YWCA Career Woman of Achievement, and is the recipient of the Dean’s Award from Howard University School of Education, the Pepperdine University Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Marva Collins Education Excellence Award, and the Governor’s Educational Leadership Award. Last year she was named Ohio Pioneer in Education by the Ohio State Department of Education, and in 2008 she received the Beacon of Light Humanitarian award. In 2009 she received the Doctor of Laws Degree from Pepperdine University. In 2011, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the field of adolescent literature by The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English, as well as the 33rd Annual Jeremiah Luddington Award by the Educational Book and Media Association, also for lifetime achievement. In 2015 she was honored by the American Library Association as the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime literary achievement. In 2015 she was honored with the Anne V. Zarrow Award by the Tulsa Library Trust., as well as the 2016 Upstander Award by Antioch College.