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
Julie Drew
Julie Drew is an Ohio-based writer and English professor who has published seven books, multiple academic and national media articles, as well as new fiction reviews. In addition to teaching creative writing at the graduate and undergraduate levels, she has offered writing workshops in the Midwest and New England.
Julie earned a BA in Creative Writing, MA in English literature, and PhD in Rhetoric and Writing from the University of South Florida. She is currently a Professor of English at The University of Akron where she teaches creative writing, cultural studies, and women & film.
Her most recent work, The Tesla Effect trilogy, is a young adult series comprised of Glimpse (2014), Run (2014), and Breathe (June 2015). The first two books in the trilogy were included on Ohio.com’s list of Memorable Books of 2014.
Julie’s novels have been reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal (her novel Daughter of Providence received a coveted Red Star Review), Kirkus, Booklist, Historical Novels Review (where Daughter of Providence received an Editor’s Choice designation), Cleveland Plain Dealer, Providence Journal, and Akron Beacon Journal.
Having grown up in Florida and then lived in Ohio for more than a decade, Julie and her husband now happily spend part of every year near the ocean in Rhode Island. She loves dogs, loves to travel and hike, is an amateur foodie and unabashed TV enthusiast, and enjoys outdoorsy volunteer work in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Visit her at http://www.juliedrew.com.
Cari Dubiel
Cari Dubiel is an author of nonfiction and speculative fiction. Ordinary people encounter extraordinary monsters in her latest book, I Loved the Mothman and Other Stories (2024). Cari is a librarian and an active member of Sisters in Crime.
R.C. Durkee
R.C. Durkee is both a writer and an artist who blends her love of history, nature and the rural life into her creative projects. The sixth generation to have lived on the family’s 182 year old farm, she has raised horses, sheep, cows and crops. She is also an avid gardener.
An award winning artist, her artwork has appeared on magazine covers, in art books and in art galleries in Ohio and beyond. She has written and published short stories and essays for over twenty-five years, and her debut novel, published in 2014, is the historical fiction, RUM RUN set during 1920’s Prohibition. It has received many rave reviews including Midwest Book Review, the Historical Novel Society and the Great Lakes Historical Society. She painted the book’s dramatic cover design at the suggestion of her publisher.
RUM RUN was selected to participate in the 2015 Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus, Ohio where she participated in a panel discussion on historical fiction and attended a reception at the governor’s residence. She has done many programs on her novel and Lake Erie Prohibition history at libraries, societies and continuing education courses as well as book and writing club talks.
Her interests are historical places and buildings, classics cars, hiking and biking and star- gazing. She particularly enjoys studying 17th though early 20th Century American history and visiting related sites with her husband who shares her interest in the the Civil War. For more information about Durkee, go to her website at rcdurkee.com.
Mary Beth Earnheardt
M.B. Earnheardt lives in Youngstown, Ohio, transplanted from her childhood home in Mahaffey, PA, where she grew up on a small farm, surrounded by trees and books. Although she has written a smattering of academic articles and news stories, Switch-A-Wish is her first work of fiction.
When she’s not writing, Earnheardt directs the Anderson Program in Journalism at Youngstown State University, and teaches journalism courses in media law and news reporting. She advises the student newspaper, preparing the next generation of great storytellers. When she’s not teaching, she helps her husband, Dr. Adam C. Earnheardt, raise their four lab experiments (re: kids) in a Petri dish they call “home.”
Earnheardt earned a Ph.D. in communication studies from Kent State University, a M.S. degree in communication, B.S. in communication, and a B.A. in political science from Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Her blog is available at mbearnheardt.com.
Jeffrey Ebbeler
Jeffrey Ebbeler has worked as an art director, book designer, and illustrator. He is a graduate of the Art Academy of Cincinnati. After college he worked for a puppet theater sculpting marionettes and performing. He has since become a full-time freelance illustrator and has illustrated over 40 children’s books, including One Is a Feast for Mouse, Cinco de Mouse O!, Haunted House, Haunted Mouse, and Snow Day for Mouse, all by Judy Cox. He has also written and illustrated A Giant Mess and Kraken Me Up, which was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.
David Allen Edmonds
David Allen Edmonds spent most of his working life as a teacher. His mysteries Personal Pronouns and Indirect Objects are set in a suburban Cleveland high school. Now offering Unveiled Love, his second Benton Center Romance, he asks, “What’s more romantic than falling in love and solving today’s problems? Writing for me began as therapy. As a burned-out teacher I re-claimed my sense of purpose in the writing of my Joe Lehrer Mysteries and was able to return to the classroom energized and positive. COVID, or rather the forced necessity of watching Hallmark Movies, taught me the value of a romantic perspective. My Benton Center Romances strive for that Happy Ending feeling while also addressing problems that besiege contemporary American society. My current project is re-visiting and possibly publishing stories I wrote about my early career in education, the Faculty Lounge Stories.”
Ray Eichenberger
Ray Eichenberger is a retired attorney. He is a graduate of Eastmoor High School, Columbus. Ray also attended and graduated from Miami University, with a Bachelor of Science in Education, and a Bachelor of Arts in History. Ray is a graduate of Capital University Law School, Columbus, and practiced law as a private practitioner for nearly forty years. He has authored twenty-seven books, both Christian non-fiction and fiction. Ray’s hobbies include traveling, breeding and racing standardbred horses, and singing in the choir at his church.
Kathy S. Elasky
Kathy S. Elasky is a retired teacher/counselor from Southeast Ohio. She lives on a small farm with her husband, two dogs, several squirrels and the occasional raccoon or possum. Writing children’s books has been her goal from the time her children were little. She started by creating books for her grandchildren. Now she is able to share Pudgy with many others. Besides writing, Kathy loves her family, church activities, nature, reading, and crafting of all sorts. Interacting with people at speaking engagements and book events is one of her newest passions.
Nathan Elias
Nathan Elias grew up in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of The Reincarnations: Stories and the forthcoming novel Coil Quake Rift (Montag Press, 2020/21). He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, his writing has been nominated for the Puschart Prize and Best Microfiction, and he was a finalist of The Saturday Evening Post 2020 Great American Fiction Contest. His short fiction, poetry, essays, and book reviews have appeared in publications such as PANK, Entropy, Hobart, Pithead Chapel, and Barnstorm. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and rescue dog.
Mary Ellis
Mary Ellis is a former schoolteacher turned USA Today bestselling author who’s written twenty-six novels including Amish fiction, historical romance, and suspense. Her first mystery, Midnight on the Mississippi, was a finalist for the RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Award and a finalist for the Daphne du Maurier Award. Her latest series is the Bourbon Tour Mysteries from Severn House. Book two, One Hundred Proof Murder released August 3, 2021. Her latest Amish novella is Missing available on Amazon Kindle. She enjoys gardening and bicycling and lives in Ohio with her husband and dog. http://www.maryellis.net or http://www.facebook.com/Mary.Ellis.Author