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.
Susan Guy
Susan M. Guy was born and raised in Jefferson County, Ohio. Following in the footsteps of her father, a retired Wintersville police captain, Susan served as the first female police officer on the Cross Creek Township Police Department for fifteen years, acheiveing the rank of sergeant. Since 1994, she has been employed by the State of Ohio as a correctional officer.
She is a member of the Fort Steuben Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and is the public relations director for the Tri State Writers Society. She credits the Tri State Writers Society and its president, author Karina Garrison, for asking her to write a short story on prostitution in Steubenville. The story took on a life of its own, as the urge to dig for more information took over. The result is this book, Mobsters, Madams & Murder in Steubenville, Ohio (The Story of Little Chicago).
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Margaret Peterson Haddix is the New York Times-bestselling author of 50 books for kids and teens, including the Shadow Children series, the Missing series, and the Greystone Secrets series. Her newest book, The Ghostly Photos, is the second in a new series, Mysteries of Trash and Treasure. Her books have been published in more than 20 countries and honored with the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award and numerous state reader’s choice awards, including the Buckeye Book Award. Haddix grew up on a farm near Washington Court House, Ohio, and graduated from Miami University with degrees in English/journalism, English/creative writing, and history. Before her first book was published in 1995, she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana; a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis; and a community college instructor and freelance writer in Danville, Illinois. She and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio. They are the parents of two grown children.
Ann Hagedorn
Ann Hagedorn has written for the Wall Street Journal and New York Daily News and is the author of five critically acclaimed books, including the Ohioana Award-winning Beyond the River and Savage Peace, Her latest book is The Invisible Soldiers: How America Outsourced Our Security.…
Read MoreAnn Hagedorn has written for the Wall Street Journal and New York Daily News and is the author of five critically acclaimed books, including the Ohioana Award-winning Beyond the River and Savage Peace, Her latest book is The Invisible Soldiers: How America Outsourced Our Security. (Photo by Jeanie Wulfkuhle)
Krysten Lindsay Hager
Who knew all those embarrassing, cringe-y moments in middle school and high school could turn into a career? And who would have thought that daydreaming in math class would pay off down the road? Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. Her work includes YA contemporary, middle grade fiction, and adult and young adult rom-coms. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends…Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, and Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2), Dating the It Guy, Can Dreams Come True, and In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety. Krysten’s work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on Living Dayton. She received her BA in English and master’s degree in liberal studies from the University of Michigan-Flint.
Richard Hague
Richard Hague (born 1947) is an American poet and writer.
J. A. Hall
J. A. Hall was born and raised in Athens County, Ohio. She has a PhD in Communication Studies from Ohio University. She is the owner of Little Meadow Farm, which is a private sanctuary that gives animals of all shapes and sizes forever homes.
Andrea Hall
Andrea Hall is an author and children’s book editor. She received a BA in English/creative writing from Miami University in Ohio. She’s a former book reviewer for the Ohioana Quarterly and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. When not writing, Andrea can be found crafting, baking, and reading. Raised in Ohio, Andrea currently lives in Chicago.
Blaine Paxton Hall
Blaine Paxton Hall was born in Cambridge, Ohio and grew up in Chicago and Woodstock, IL. He is the author of Hestia’s House, a literary memoir with the overarching theme of home.
Including historical photos, his memoir documents his growing up in the Woodstock Children’s Home–which had a historical connection to Orson Welles.
But the challenges of being abandoned by his parents and having to provide for all his college education could not have prepared him for the existential struggles of his medical, surgical, legal and social gender transition in 1983 at age 31. He was the first to transition in NC, going his trajectory, where he’s lived since July 1981. See hestiashouse.com.
His childhood and early adulthood experiences gave rise to his developing keen intuition into the suffering of others; and he became a highly accomplished trailblazer, not only in his life, but also in his medical career. He is the Founder of the American Academy of Nephrology PAs (May 1997) and the Founder of the Duke Adult Gender Medicine Clinic (Jan 3, 2018). See: https://pahx.org/bios/hall-blaine-paxton/
Upon concluding his clinical and teaching activities at Duke University Health System, he founded The School of Athens, an adult academy which, in the classical liberal arts tradition, provides educational experiences to inspire lifelong learning in the pursuit of the most noble ideas, artistic and intellectual accomplishments of mankind. See: theschoolofathens.net
The theme of home has been pervasive throughout Hall’s life. In December 2020, Ohio became the second-to-the-last state in the Union to allow one to amend the gender marker on one’s birth certificate. Working through Probate Court in Guernsey County, Ohio, Mr. Hall was finally able to obtain his amended birth certificate in December 2021. He framed his coveted, new birth certificate in white, to signify innocence, rebirth and hope. And he displays it right next to his original, handwritten, Cambridge Ohio, 1952 birth certificate. He is equally proud of both.
Eileen Hammond
Eileen Curley Hammond is an author who left a successful marketing career in the insurance industry. When she retired early, she pursued her first love, writing. And when deciding what to write about, there was only one choice for her, murder mysteries, because she was and is a big fan of Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew) and Agatha Christie (Miss. Marple/Hercule Poirot). Eileen lives in Ohio with her husband and two adorable cats. She also has a pond with assorted koi and minnows that is heavily protected from predatory herons in the area. Eileen and her husband love traveling, especially to national parks, and spending time with family and friends. Learn more at: https://www.eileencurleyhammond.com/