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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Sally Derby
Sally Derby is the author of numerous children’s books. The inspiration for No Mush Today came from a young girl at Derby’s church, and from her own childhood dislike of cornmeal mush. Derby and her husband live in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the winner of the 2017 Juvenile/Middle Grade Ohioana Book Award for Jump Back, Paul.
Liz Deskins
Liz Deskins was a school librarian for thirty years, teaching at the elementary, high school, and college levels and is now an adjunct for Kent State University. She also serves as Curriculum Editor for the School Library Connection reVIEWS+ online journal, which helps to fuel her passion for writing on topics of interest to school librarians. Her first book collaboration with Christina Dorr was Linking Picture Book Biographies to National Content Standards: 200+ Lives to Explore (Libraries Unlimited 2015). Her newest book is LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens: Providing a Window for All (ALA publications 2018). She just finished a third book for ALA, which will be published this fall.
Julia DeVillers
Julia DeVillers is a best selling author of fiction for young people. Her books include How My Private Personal Journal Became a Bestseller,which was adapted into the Disney Channel Original Movie Read It and Weep, directed by Paul Hoen. Her other books include the Trading Faces identical twins series with her co-author and identical Jennifer Roy, the Liberty Porter: First Daughter series and Princess of Gossip with co-author Sabrina Bryan of Disney’s Cheetah Girls and Dancing with the Stars.…
Read MoreJulia DeVillers is a best selling author of fiction for young people. Her books include How My Private Personal Journal Became a Bestseller,which was adapted into the Disney Channel Original Movie Read It and Weep, directed by Paul Hoen. Her other books include the Trading Faces identical twins series with her co-author and identical Jennifer Roy, the Liberty Porter: First Daughter series and Princess of Gossip with co-author Sabrina Bryan of Disney’s Cheetah Girls and Dancing with the Stars. Her next book will be Emma Emmets, Playground Matchmaker (Razorbill, 2013).
Jen Devon
Jen Devon writes cinematic contemporary romances about complicated, imperfect people finding their perfect match.A former biology academic and lecturer, she currently works in the tech industry and dreams of writing full-time. She’s an avid gardener, photographer, and boardgamer, a thrift store enthusiast and unapologetic nerd. She’s a mom of five (three kids, two rescue mutts) and lives in central Ohio with her engineer husband. https://jendevon.com/
Robb Forman Dew
Robb Forman Dew was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For the past thirty years she has lived in Williamstown, MA, where she lives with her husband, who is professor of history at Williams College. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Dew is the author of the novels Dale Loves Sophie to Death, for which she received the National Book Award; The Time of Her Life; Fortunate Lives; The Evidence Against Her; and, most recently, The Truth of the Matter; as well as a memoir, The Family Heart.
Read MoreRobb Forman Dew was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For the past thirty years she has lived in Williamstown, MA, where she lives with her husband, who is professor of history at Williams College. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Dew is the author of the novels Dale Loves Sophie to Death, for which she received the National Book Award; The Time of Her Life; Fortunate Lives; The Evidence Against Her; and, most recently, The Truth of the Matter; as well as a memoir, The Family Heart.
Srirupa Dhar
Srirupa Dhar is Indian by birth and has been living in the United States since 1998. She completed her M.A. and M.Phil. from University of Calcutta, India. She has a third Master’s degree in English with Technical Writing Certification from University of Alabama in Huntsville, U.S.A. Srirupa taught as a young college lecturer in Calcutta, West Bengal and as a junior high school teacher in Columbus, Ohio. She has also worked as an interpreter in Columbus. She is a voracious reader and takes an avid delight in many forms of art. Currently, she is a writer, primarily of fiction. Her debut novel called “For A Drop Of Rice-Water” has recently been published by a traditional publishing house. Some of her short stories have been published in “The Bangalore Review”, “The Seattle Star”, “The Statesman” and “Café Dissensus.” One of her short stories has been published in “Muffled Moans Unleashed”, an anthology on child abuse and sexual violence. Some of her nonfictional works have appeared in collections of essays. One of her distinguished nonfictional articles called “Self-realization of Women through Binaries in Chokher Bali and Ghare Baire” has been published in “Reading Rabindranath: The Myriad Shades of a Genius.” Occasionally, Srirupa acts in plays in Columbus. She is part of an amateur dramatic society.
Raffaele Di Lallo
Raffaele Di Lallo has been growing houseplants for over 30 years, and it all started in grade school as a way to clean the air from his father’s smoking habit. It quickly became an obsession, and he con- tinues to grow a vast array of plants both indoors and out. In 2017, he received a phone call from a friend who suggested that he start a blog, which Raffaele promptly did the next day. There was no looking back, and his Ohio Tropics houseplant care website quickly made it to the top 10 house- plant care blogs on the internet, according to Feedspot. The blog initially provided information on how to achieve a tropical flair to gardens in cold-weather areas like Ohio. Later on, its main emphasis became houseplant care, which remains the sole focus to this day.Raffaele received his BS in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 2000. The thinking and questioning skills he developed in his studies, combined with his passion for growing plants, have led him to become a“plant solver.” You can source Raffaele’s expertise via his virtual and in-person, houseplant consultation business where he helps people work through their house- plant challenges. Contact Raffaele directly through his Ohio Tropics website for any inquiries, or message him on Instagram (@ohiotropics). Raffaele received his Certificate of Home Horticulture from Oregon State University as a part of their Master Gardener program, completed the Green Gardener program at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, is a member of the American Orchid Society as well as Garden Communicators International, and worked part-time as a freelance writer for the popular Gardening Know How website. He also self-published a succinct but very popular guide to orchid care, Moth Orchid Mastery.
Tom Diemer
Tom Diemer teaches in the Washington program of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He covered Rhodes for more than a decade as a reporter for The Associated Press and as the Columbus bureau chief for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Tracey Dils
Tracey Dils is the author of more than 50 books for young readers in a variety of genres: picture books, middle grade fiction and nonfiction, and biography. Tracey has been awarded multiple awards, including the Parent’s Choice Award and the Ohioana Award in Children’s Literature. She has held a number of high-level editorial positions, including publisher for McGraw-Hill Children’s Publishing, marketing director for Ohio State University Press, and editor-in-chief for Willowisp Press. Tracey has served as an expert writing consultant for various publishing endeavors, including Guideposts for Kids, several elementary and college textbook companies, and as a creative writing specialist for Thurber House.
Dils considers inspiring beginning writers as her most important work. She has taught writing for children at the university level and through correspondence schools across the country. She is a featured speaker at writers’ conferences and workshops. In addition to her work with aspiring adult writers, Dils has taught writing to children in a number of settings and is a frequent guest author in elementary and middle schools.
Tracey graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. She lives with her husband, Richard Herrold, in Columbus, Ohio.
Kim Dinan
Kim Dinan is a freelance writer and blogger, whose travel blog, So Many Places, was selected by USA Today as one of the 2014 Best Hiking and Outdoor Travel blogs. Her writing has appeared in OnTrak Magazine and Northwest Travel Magazine, among others, and she was on a speaking tour for Backpacker Magazine. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband and their young daughter. Her memoir, The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and A Life-Changing Journey Around the World, will be published by Sourcebooks in April 2017.