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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Kiya Renae
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kiya Renae attended the University of Cincinnati where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (Criminal Justice concentration). During her studies in undergrad, she was offered multiple opportunities to model that she declined in order to fully focus on her degree. However, after being unsuccessful in finding a job following graduation, she took on some of the modeling opportunities that had been previously offered which later afforded her music video opportunities and magazine spreads with well known artists. Unfulfilled in the industry, and still in search of her ultimate purpose, Kiya Renae enrolled in the Northern Kentucky University where she found herself torn between continuing down the career path of “modeling” or furthering her education. She decided to pursue her degree, earning a Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (MSIO) and close the chapter on modeling. Kiya Renae chose the Psychology field in hopes of learning more about herself, personal growth and development. Being raised by a single mother in a family that applauded academia, Kiya Renae was often thought of as the family rebel. Although never leaving her academic roots; piercings, tattoos and urban modeling were far outside of her conservative upbringing. Her search for herself in these two separate yet equal worlds has heavily influenced her creative writing style in expressing the feelings of being torn in searching for your identity. Prior to releasing ‘Through Her Own Eyes: This Is Only the Beginning’, Kiya Renae has often been asked to write and speak at small engagements because of her unique ability to communicate effectively yet in a way that people can both understand and relate to. After releasing ‘Through Her Own Eyes’, a year later she continued to share her introspection with her release of ‘It’s Ok To Be Broken’. While she chose not to release her titles as a series, ‘It’s Ok To Be Broken’ picks up where ‘Through Her Own Eyes’ left off. With the continued support and positive feedback, Kiya Renae has no plans to stop sharing nor to stop encouraging through her gift of writing. Still working towards living in her purpose, Kiya Renae decided to pursue her Doctorate in Leadership Studies and in the midst took on the challenge of releasing her third text, ‘UnRefined’ which she documents is the most personal, most emotional text that she has yet to release. Frequently faced with the unprecedented ups and downs, ‘UnRefined’ is a documented journey to self-love. Kiya Renae states “I hoarded this text because I had to prepare myself for the level of transparency and to be honest, I thought I would be in a different space literally and figuratively by the time I decided to publish.” ‘UnRefined’ is a show of raw appreciation for the self. Too often people neglect the being within; Kiya Renae wants you to be still, get to know yourself, accept yourself and love yourself; journey with her in her latest release, ‘UnRefined: Still Learning, Still Growing’.
James Renner
James Renner is the author of several true crime books, as well as the novels The Man from Primrose Lane and The Great Forgetting. His latest work is the nonfiction thriller, True Crime Addict. He sometimes teaches Composition and Fiction Appreciation at Kent State University and the University of Akron.
Mike Resnick
Science fiction writer Mike Resnick holds a record thirty-six Hugo Award nominations, including five wins. Resnick has written sixty-four novels, over 250 short stories, two screenplays, and has edited forty anthologies. His most recent book is The Fortress in Orion.
Read MoreScience fiction writer Mike Resnick holds a record thirty-six Hugo Award nominations, including five wins. Resnick has written sixty-four novels, over 250 short stories, two screenplays, and has edited forty anthologies. His most recent book is The Fortress in Orion.
James Reston
James Reston, Jr. was an assistant to Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall before serving in the US Army from 1965 to 1968. He is the bestselling author of seventeen books–including The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews, which helped inspire the film Frost/Nixon (2008)–three plays, and numerous articles in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine. He won the Prix Italia and Dupont-Columbus Award for his NPR radio documentary, Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown. He lives with his wife in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Jim Reuther
Jim Reuther received a bachelor’s in chemistry in 1973, a master’s in chemistry in 1976 and a doctorate in fuel science in 1979. In 1984, he retired as associate professor of fuel science after advising the scholarly research of five doctoral and seven master of science graduates. In 2015, he retired from a global nonprofit as a research leader in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive weapons of mass destruction defense. He has traveled from Alaska to Afghanistan as a subject matter expert investigating fires and explosions, defeating improvised explosive devices (IEDs), reducing IED fireball skin burns, collecting forensic intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, and demilitarizing chemical weapons. He has won eight patents and an R&D100 Award for a top invention in the World in 1996. He is a 2011 Ohio Soccer Hall of Fame referee inductee. Reuther’s retirement plans include volunteering and more writing, including tales on light whispering and flame wizardry. He is Theresa Reuther’s widower; they were married for 36 years. He has two adult children.
Adam Rex
Adam Rex is the author and illustrator of more than forty books for kids. These include New York Times bestselling picture books like Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, School’s First Day of School, (with illustrator Christian Robinson), and Chu’s Day (with author Neil Gaiman). His work has been adapted for film and television. He’s won some awards, including the Margaret Wise Brown Prize in Children’s Literature and the National Cartoonists Society Book Illustration Award. His debut novel was shortlisted for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. He used to make art for games like Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. Sometimes he still does. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his dog, son, and wife. Learn more at https://www.adamrex.com/
Brad Ricca
Brad Ricca is the Edgar-nominated author of six books, including the new graphic novel (with artist Courtney Sieh) Ten Days in a Mad-house and the Ohioana Award winning Super Boys. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Learn more at: https://www.trueraiders.com/
Daniel L. Rice
Daniel L. Rice was the Chief Zoologist for the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves within the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. He spent 25 years with the Division documenting populations of Ohio’s rare and endangered species and retired in 2002.
Donald Tunnicliff Rice
Donald Tunnicliff Rice is a freelance writer based in Columbus, Ohio. His essays, short stories, and satires have appeared in periodicals ranging from The New York Times to Scholia Satyrica to the Journal of Caribbean Literature. He is the author or editor of nine published books. Cast in Deathless Bronze: Andrew Rowan, the Spanish-American War, and the Origins of American Empire earned Rice a $5,000 Individual Achievement Award from the Ohio Arts Council. He is currently working on a novel set in Tampa just prior to the start of the Spanish-American War.
Marci Rich
Marci Rich has published poetry, essays, and journalism, and earned honors from organizations and publications as varied as the Academy of American Poets, the Abiko Quarterly for James Joyce Studies (Japan), BlogHer, Huffington Post, and the Press Club of
Cleveland, from which she has twice won Best Freelance Writer in Ohio awards in its All Ohio Excellence in Journalism competitions in 2018 and 2019. The latter awards recognize her local history feature series, “Look
Back, Elyria,” which she writes for the Chronicle-Telegram and which forms the basis of Looking Back at Elyria: A Midwest City at Midcentury, her first nonfiction book. A graduate of Oberlin College, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in English with a creative writing specialization, Marci has also studied memoir writing at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown,
Massachusetts. She also earned an associate of arts degree from Lorain County Community College. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Theta Kappa, the Authors Guild, the National Society of Newspaper
Columnists, the Press Club of Cleveland, Literary Cleveland, James River Writers, and the Lorain County Historical Society. A chapbook of her poems, Lights and Shadows, was published by Bottom Dog Press in
1985 under her former name, Marci Janas.