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
Lindsay Ward
Lindsay Ward is the author and illustrator of over thirty books for kids. Her work has been reviewed in Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School and Library Journal, and the New York Times. Originally from San Jose, California, Lindsay now lives in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Peninsula, Ohio, with her husband and fellow author Frank Tupta, their three boys, their dog Sally, and a flock of ducks. Most days you can find her writing and drawing at home or running Lucky Duck Books, the publishing company she co-owns with her husband. Follow her on Instagram @lindsaymward
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, of Columbus, is the Shamus, Derringer, and ITW-award-nominated author of The Mailman, featuring Mercury Carter, a former federal agent turned freelance courier. Welsh-Huggins is also the author of the standalone thriller, The End of the Road, the Andy Hayes Private Eye series, and editor of Columbus Noir. Andrew’s short stories have appeared in multiple magazines and anthologies, including The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2021 and 2024. Learn more at: https://www.andrewwelshhuggins.com/
Kathy Wiechman
Kathy Cannon Wiechman is a former teacher and a lover of American history. She was awarded the 2015 Grateful American Book Prize for her debut novel LIKE A RIVER. Her newest novel NOT ON FIFTH STREET is loosely based on her father’s experiences during the record-breaking Ohio River flood of 1937.
James A. Willis
Not since the Headless Horseman went charging through Sleepy Hollow has something come out of the Hudson highlands of upstate New York as thrilling and chilling as author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis. Fueled by a steady diet of Boo Berry cereal, Creepy Magazine and late-night Vincent Price movies, Willis soon developed a taste for the unexplained and quickly began seeking out all things strange and spooky.
When he wasn’t trying to coax the boogeyman out from under his bed for a photo shoot, Willis pondered such eternal questions as what happens to us when we die, is there life on other planets, and what possesses someone to decorate their house with 1,001 milk jugs?
In 1999, after spending more than fifteen years chasing after ghosts and visiting crybaby bridges, Willis moved to Ohio and founded The Ghosts of Ohio (ghostsofohio.org), a nationally recognized paranormal research organization. Willis has grown the organization to well over 35 members in three divisions throughout the state: Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.
In 2004, in what seemed to be destiny, Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, the brains behind the Weird U.S. series of books, approached Willis and asked him to contribute to their latest volume. To date, Willis has been involved with six books in the Weird U.S. series. He is the co-author of Weird Ohio (2005) and Weird Indiana (2008) and was also a contributing author to Weird U.S. (2004), Weird Hauntings (2006), Weird US II: The ODDyssey Continues (2008), and Weird Encounters (2010). Willis’ unique and offbeat writing style was officially recognized in 2006 with his induction into the Grand Order of Weird Writers.
In addition, Willis has been a contributing author to several books in the Armchair Reader series, beginning with Weird, Scary & Unusual (2008) and continuing with several books released in 2010: Armchair Reader Goes Hollywood, Armchair Reader’s All about Ohio, and The Mammoth Armchair Reader. 2011 marked the release of Willis’ latest collaboration with Armchair Reader, Haunted America. For 2012, Willis released Haunted Indiana, his first work with Stackpole Books. In the fall of 2012, Willis’ The Big Book Of Ohio Ghost Stories was unleashed. Willis’ latest book, Ohio’s Historic Haunts, was released in late summer of 2015.
A sought-after public speaker, Willis has given presentations throughout the United States, during which he has educated and entertained tens of thousands of people of all ages in crowd sizes ranging from 10 to well over 600. He has also been featured in more than 50 media sources, including CNN, USA Today, Columbus Business First, Midwest Living, The Canadian Press, and even the Kuwait Times. He is also currently a contributing author to Mysteries Magazine.
Willis currently resides in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and daughter, a Queen-loving parrot, and two narcoleptic cats. Visit him online at http://www.strangeandspookyworld.com.
Jacqueline Woodson
Jacqueline Woodson (jacquelinewoodson.com) is the author of more than thirty books for young people and adults including Another Brooklyn, Red At The Bone, and The Day You Begin. She received a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2023 E. B. White Award, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and the NAACP Image Award. Her books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After, New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin, and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, After Tupac and D Foster, and Each Kindness. In 2018, she founded BALDWIN FOR THE ARTS (https://baldwinforthearts.org), a residency serving writers, composers, interdisciplinary, and visual artists of the Global Majority. Her most recent novel, Remember Us, is set in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.
Robin Yocum
- A Perfect Shot (2018 – Seventh Street Books)
- A Welcome Murder (2017 - Seventh Street Books)
- A Brilliant Death (2016 - Seventh Street Books);
- The Essay (2012 - Arcade Publishing); and
- Favorite Sons (2011 - Arcade Publishing)
Robin Yocum is known for his fiction set in the Ohio River Valley.
His most recent novel, The Sacrifice of Lester Yates, was released in April of 2021 by Arcade CrimeWise, an imprint of Arcade Publishing.
He is the author of five additional works of fiction:
- A Perfect Shot (2018 – Seventh Street Books)
- A Welcome Murder (2017 – Seventh Street Books)
- A Brilliant Death (2016 – Seventh Street Books);
- The Essay (2012 – Arcade Publishing); and
- Favorite Sons (2011 – Arcade Publishing)
Favorite Sons was named the 2011 Book of the Year for Mystery/Suspense by USA Book News. A Brilliant Death was a Barnes & Noble No. 1 bestseller and a finalist for both the 2017 Edgar Award and the Silver Falchion Award for best adult mystery.
He also has written two works of non-fiction: Dead Before Deadline . . . and Other Tales from the Police Beat (2004 – University of Akron Press); and Insured for Murder (1992 – Prometheus Books), which he co-authored with Cathy Candisky.
Yocum joined the Columbus Dispatch in 1980. He worked at the paper for 11 years, including six years as the senior reporter on the investigative desk. He won more than 30 local, state and national journalism awards in categories ranging from investigative reporting to feature writing. Before joining the investigative team, he covered the police beat for four years, which was the basis for his book, Dead Before Deadline.
Prior to joining the Dispatch, Yocum was the associate sports editor of the Martins Ferry, Ohio, Times Leader, and a reporter for the Lancaster, Ohio, Eagle-Gazette.
He is the principle at Yocum Communications, a public relations and marketing consulting firm in Galena, Ohio, which he founded in 2001.
Yocum grew up in the Ohio River village of Brilliant, Ohio.
He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University.
R.G. Yoho
R.G. Yoho, Washington County, is the author of Return to Matewan, which is his first historical novel, a story taking place during the brutal coal mine wars in West Virginia and Colorado.
Primarily a Western author, Yoho has published, Long Ride to Yesterday, in addition to his four books in the Kellen Malone series, Death Comes to Redhawk, Death Rides the Rail, Nightfall Over Nicodemus, and The Evil Day. The author’s passion for Westerns began with the reading of Flint, a novel by famed Western author, Louis L’Amour.
Yoho has also published three non-fiction works, America’s History Is His Story, a book written as a request from a friend, Major Impact, the biography of former West Virginia quarterback, Major Harris, and Heroes In Our Midst, a profile of World War II veterans which received an award for historical preservation.
A graduate of Hyles-Anderson College, Yoho has been employed in chemical manufacturing for over thirty years. He lives in Southeastern Ohio with his wife of over thirty years.
Maria Zampini
Maria Zampini runs the horticultural marketing firm, UpShoot, LLC, in Lake County, Ohio. She researches plant trends and develops and introduces new plants to the horticultural market. Zampini lives in Springfield, Ohio.