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): 2023
Judith Turner-Yamamoto
Judith Turner-Yamamoto’s debut novel LOVING THE DEAD AND GONE, a Mariel Hemingway Book Club pick, won the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Southern Regional Fiction. The North Carolina Society of Historians recognized Loving the Dead and Gone with the 2023 Historical Novel Award. The book was shortlisted for the 2023 UC-Berkeley Eric Hoffer Book Awards Grand Prize, where it was also an honorable mention in General Fiction and finalist for the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award for Debut Fiction. Her novel, The Drawing of Angels, is currently shortlisted for the Santa Fe Writers Project Book Award. Her publications include StorySOUTH, Mississippi Review, Deep South, and American Literary Review, and many anthologies. Judith’s other awards include an Ohio Arts Council fellowship, two Virginia Arts Commission fellowships, the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize, the Washington Prize for Fiction, VCCA residency, and the Virginia Screenwriting Award. An art historian, her many articles have appeared in Elle, Travel & Leisure, AARP, and the Los Angeles Times, and her interviews have aired on NPR affiliate WVXU. A Kentucky Humanities Speakers Bureau scholar, Judith is a frequent presenter at conferences and book festivals including the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, Chautauqua Institution and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. She has taught at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, Chautauqua Institution, the Writers’ Center, Bethesda, Maryland, and the Danville, VA Writers Conference. She lives on the Ohio/Kentucky border where her love of travel and place continues to inspire her writing.
Learn more at http://www.turneryamamoto.com. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Jane Ann Turzillo
Jane Ann Turzillo is the author of ten books. She has been nominated twice for the Agatha for Wicked Women of Ohio and Unsolved Murders & Disappearances in Northeast Ohio. She is also a National Federation of Press Women award-winner for Wicked Cleveland, Ohio Train Disasters, and others. A full-time author and speaker, she concentrates on true crime and history. Her current book is Northern Ohio Cold Cases. As one of the original owners of a large weekly newspaper, she covered police, fire and hard news. Visit her website at http://www.janeannturzillo.com.
Carmella Van Vleet
Carmella Van Vleet is a former teacher who has been a full-time author for over 20 years. She’s the author of over a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, for kids of all ages. Her debut middle grade novel, Eliza Bing Is (Not) A Big Fat Quitter, received the Christopher Award and was featured on multiple state award lists, including Choose to Read Ohio. And her recent middle grade, Nothing Is Little, was a 2023 Ohioana Book Award finalist. She also co-authored the picture book To the Stars! The First American Woman to Walk in Space (co-authored with astronaut Kathy Sullivan). Carmella lives in Columbus, Ohio. She can be found online at: https://carmellavanvleet.com/.
Marie Vibbert
Marie Vibbert has sold over 80 short stories to magazines like Nature, Vice, and Amazing Stories. Her work has been translated into Czech, French, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, was on the long-list for the British Science Fiction Award in 2021. She played women’s professional football for the Cleveland Fusion and by day, she is a computer programmer at Case Western Reserve University. Learn more at: https://www.marievibbert.com/
Wendy Vogel
D. W. Vogel is a veterinarian, board game developer, cancer survivor, SCUBA diver, and current president of Cincinnati Fiction Writers. She is the author of the Horizon Alpha Series, the fantasy novel Super Dungeon: The Forgotten King, and the writing manual Five Minutes to Success: Master the Craft of Writing. Learn more at: https://wendyvogelbooks.com/
Andrea Wang
Andrea Wang is an acclaimed author of children’s books. Her picture book Watercress was awarded the Caldecott Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, the Ohioana Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, among other accolades. Her other books, The Many Meanings of Meilan, Luli and the Language of Tea, Magic Ramen, and The Nian Monster, have also received awards and starred reviews. Her work explores culture, creative thinking, and identity. She lives in Colorado with her family. For more information about Andrea and her books, visit https://andreaywang.com/.
Sara Bennett Wealer
Sara grew up in Manhattan, Kansas (the “Little Apple”), where she sang in all the choirs and wrote for the high school newspaper. She majored in voice performance at the University of Kansas before transferring to journalism school and becoming a reporter covering everything from house fires to Hollywood premieres. She now works in marketing. Sara lives in Cincinnati with her husband, two daughters, and a growing menagerie of pets. When she’s not writing, you can find her at the ballet, or obsessively watching ballet on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Learn more at: https://www.sarabennettwealer.com/
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Andrew Welsh-Huggins, an Associated Press reporter and freelance writer, is the author of the crime novel The End of the Road; the Andy Hayes private eye series, including the Shamus Award-nominated An Empty Grave; and the editor of Columbus Noir. His short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, the anthology “The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year 2021,” and other magazines and anthologies. Learn more at: https://www.andrewwelshhuggins.com/
Julie Whitney
Julie Whitney is a public relations professional with forty years of experience in public relations and marketing, having worked on both the agency and client side as well as in the television industry. Her company, Phillippi-Whitney Communications, LLC, founded in 2000, represents both large and small clients in a wide variety of industries. She has promoted dozens of authors throughout her career, often supplementing the efforts of the internal PR teams of their publishers. She also works as on-camera talent, appearing in both television commercials and video podcasts. She even appeared as an extra in the movie Grease, which was shot on location in the summer of 1977 in Los Angeles. Learn more at: https://astrathelonelyairplane.com/
Brieanna Wilkoff
Brieanna Wilkoff (she/her) believes wholeheartedly in the power of kindness, the importance of theatre, and the awesomeness of ’80s rock. She married her husband onstage at the oldest surviving theatre in central Ohio, and their first dance was to Bon Jovi’s “Thank You for Loving Me.” Her favorite musical is a three-way tie between Les Mis, Wicked, and Hamilton.
I’ll Be There for You is Brieanna’s debut young adult novel. It was inspired by her family’s commitment to kindness, including performing 100 kind acts in a single day. Brieanna lives in Westerville, Ohio, with her husband, daughter, and dog. You can visit her online at brieannawilkoff.com or follow her on Twitter (@BrieannaWilkoff), Instagram (@brieanna_wilkoff), or Facebook (Brieanna Wilkoff).