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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Vidas Barzdukas
Vidas Barzdukas is an award-winning writer and director whose films have been screened at numerous U.S. film festivals, featured on PBS stations, and broadcast on television networks in Asia. In 2015, Vidas earned accolades from the Columbus Dispatch for his “stirring and amusing” stage adaptation of Rafael Sabatini’s 1922 swashbuckling novel Captain Blood. His film, the black-and-white fantasy “The New Mr. Phillips,” won Best Narrative Short at the Oregon Film Awards, and he also won the Best Screenwriting award for his short film “Cold” at the Cincinnati Winterfilm Film Competition. Vidas was nominated for “Best Writer—Drama” by the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) for his work on the science fiction series Aidan 5, which was nominated for 19 IAWTV awards. Vidas is a writer on the Emmywinning Nite Owl Theatre starring Fritz the Nite Owl, which is a long-running, late-night staple of Central Ohio’s film scene. In addition to theatre and film, Vidas works in educational publishing, where he writes a wide variety of textbooks and classroom materials for K-12 students. His educational publishing subjects include reading, language arts, and history. Vidas’s passion for education also earned him a spot on the Emmy-winning children’s show Taylor’s Attic as its Educational Writing Consultant. A proud member of the Dramatists Guild, Vidas lives in Ohio with his wife and two daughters.
Will Bashor
Will Bashor, MBA, Ph.D., also has a B.A. degree in French and an M.A. degree in French literature from Ohio University. He earned his Ph.D. in International Studies from the American Graduate School in Paris where he gathered letters, newspapers, journals, and plays during his research for his trilogy on Marie Antoinette. Professor at Franklin University and Southern New Hampshire University, he is also a member of the Society for French Historical Studies. In 2013 he attended its annual meeting at Harvard University where he presented the political importance of the role of Leonard Autié, Marie Antoinette’s coiffeur, in the royal family’s unsuccessful flight to Varennes. Visit him at http://www.willbashor.com
Bob Batchelor
Batchelor (www.bobbatchelor.com), who teaches in the Media, Journalism & Film Department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is the author or editor of more than 25 books, including Mad Men: A Cultural History, John Updike: A Critical Biography, and Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel, among others. He is a noted popular culture commentator.
Tom Batiuk
Tom Batiuk is a graduate of Kent State University. His celebrated Funky Winkerbean comic strip concluded its 50-year run on December 31, 2022. Its spinoff, Crankshaft, is still carried in hundreds of newspapers throughout the United States. Batiuk was a finalist in the editorial cartooning category of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize awards for the singular series of daily comic strips that chronicled the death of longtime character Lisa Moore, which were collected in the Lisa’s Legacy Trilogy. His Funky Winkerbean series and Roses in December were finalists for the 2016 Eisner Awards. https://tombatiuk.com/.
S. F. Baumgartner
S.F. Baumgartner is a Christian suspense thriller author. She graduated from the University of Hawaii and the University of Cincinnati. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her cats, staying active, and binge-watching crime TV shows. She lives in Ohio with her family.
Janet Beard
Born and raised in East Tennessee, Janet Beard moved to New York to study screenwriting at NYU and went on to earn an MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her first novel, ‘Beneath the Pines’, was published in 2008, and her follow-up, ‘The Atomic City Girls’ became an international bestseller 2018. Janet’s latest novel, The Ballad of Laurel Springs, was published in October 2021. Janet has lived and worked in Australia, England, Boston, and Columbus, Ohio, where she is currently raising a daughter and working on a new novel.
Pete Beatty
Carrie Bebris
Carrie Bebris spent her childhood in Toledo before beginning her writing career as a journalist, college English teacher, and editor. After publishing two fantasy novels, she made her mystery debut with Pride and Prescience, which earned a place on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestseller list and was named one of the five best mysteries of the year by Library Journal. Successive books in the series have received starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and won several awards, including the 2007 Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence in romantic suspense. Bebris holds a master’s degree in English literature and is a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She speaks locally and nationally about Austen, writing, and publishing, and is on the faculty of the Antioch Writers Workshop in Yellow Springs. When not writing, Bebris likes to travel and indulge in her love of all things British. She now lives in the Dayton area.