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.
Victor Hess
Victor Hess’ first novel, Jesse Sings was acknowledged as a finalist in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing competition in 2015. It was also recognized as an Award-Winning Finalist in the Fiction: Inspirational category of the 2018 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest. His short stories have received Honorable Mention in a recent Glimmer Train competition and one made the short list for the 2017 Faulkner competition. He is currently working on a third novel centered around Jesse Hall, the main character of his first two novels. Besides a successful businessman he has been an Army Bomb Disposal Instructor, and, for decades, has taught Bible Study for both children and adults. He was raised in Ohio, attended college at Central State and Ohio University. He lives in Slidell, Louisiana with his wife and dog.
Anita M. Hessenauer
Anita M. Hessenauer is a freelance writer residing in Dublin, Ohio. She is a prolific author of both poetry and prose and has published articles in literary and religious periodicals. Her collection of poems, Authenticity was published in 2019, followed by her second poetry collection, We All Belong in 2021. Anita’s third poetry collection, Let Go was published in June 2023. Anita has a doctorate in French Literature from the University of Strasbourg, France and has taught at The Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and Bowling Green State University. She is a fully professed Third-Order Carmelite. Anita’s poetry celebrates the inherent dignity of the human person, the sanctity of human life and the intrinsic value and worth of our natural world. Her poems challenge the reader to cast aside all preconceptions, prejudices, egotism, and a divisive mentality that prevents us from working for the good of the human person and of our created world. Anita’s books are available on Amazon and where books are sold. Learn more: https://anitamhessenauer.com/
Dennis Hetzel
“Season of Lies” is Dennis Hetzel’s second novel, following the award-winning “Killing the Curse” (Headline Books, 2014) in which events precede those that unfold in the latest novel.
As a journalist and media executive, Hetzel has won numerous awards for writing, industry leadership and community service, including the 2003 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for leadership in coverage of race and diversity issues. Since 2010, he has been president and executive director of the Ohio News Media Association in Columbus, Ohio, and president of the Ohio Coalition for Open Government. He is also on the board of the Capitol Square Foundation in Columbus and an active member of Columbus Rotary.
He began his career as a weekly newspaper sports editor in the Chicago suburbs and has been a reporter, editor, general manager and publisher at newspapers including the Madison, Wis., Capital Times, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the York, Pa., Daily Record, where he was editor and publisher for 13 years. Under his leadership, the York paper won national awards from the Scripps Howard Foundation in public service journalism and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He also has taught journalism at Penn State and Temple universities.
Hetzel grew up in the Chicago area and inherited his lifelong affection for and frustration with the Cubs from his late father. He has a degree in political science and a minor in journalism from Western Illinois University, where he met his wife, Cheryl, a school psychologist and guidance counselor. They have three grown children and a home they love in Holden Beach, North Carolina, where he does much of his writing.
Hetzel also plays guitar and bass in an acoustic trio, “Phil’s Five & Dime,” which includes fellow author Rick Robinson on mandolin. He’s still hoping “this guitar thing” works out when he grows up.
You can find him on Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and http://www.dennishetzel.com. He also blogs from time to time for the Huffington Post, particularly on media and politics.
Leanna Renee Hieber
Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright, ghost tour guide, and an award-winning, bestselling author of 16 novels and non-fiction books for Tor and Kensington Books such as the Strangely Beautiful, Eterna Files, and Spectral City series. She writes and narrates several speculative fiction series for Scribd.com. Her non-fiction book co-authored with Andrea Janes, A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist for “Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction”. Leanna’s Strangely Beautiful series became a 3-time Prism Award winner and Darker Still was a Daphne du Maurier award finalist. A licensed NYC tour guide working for Boroughs of the Dead, Leanna has been featured on TV shows like Mysteries at the Museum and Beyond the Unknown discussing Victorian Spiritualism. She gives lectures and theatrical presentations around the country at conventions and prestigious institutions such as New York University, Miami University, the Cambridge Public Library, Morbid Anatomy and more, focusing on paranormal themes and 19th century women’s history. http://www.leannareneehieber.com.
Gwendolyn Joslin Hiles
Gwendolyn Joslin Hiles was born in Columbus, Ohio, and spent the majority of her youth in nearby Delaware County, just two miles from Lewis Center, a town founded by her great-great-grandfather. Living close to her ancestral roots fostered a love of history and cultural background that was reinforced by a major in American Studies at Bowling Green State University. She began her professional career teaching English and speech but soon transitioned into publishing where she served as editorial manager and art director. Leaving publishing, she continued editorial work in a freelance capacity and added the title, president, of a small commercial printing facility she owned along with her husband, Gary. In 2005 the business was sold creating time for travel and the research that led to a connection with co-author, Margaret Casterline Bowen, and ultimately to Jersey Gold.
Will Hillenbrand
Will Hillenbrand is a renowned American author and illustrator of children’s books. He has written and illustrated over 78 picture books that young readers love and cherish for their imaginative, heartwarming, and whimsical illustrations. Some of his notable works include THE VOICE IN THE HOLLOW, LITTLE RED, TURTLE-TURTLE AND THE WIDE, WIDE RIVER, DOWN BY THE STATION and the “Big Bear” series, and the “Bear and Mole” series. He has collaborated with children’s authors, such as Jane Yolen, Margery Cuyler, Eric Kimmel, Daniel Pinkwater, and his spouse, Jane Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand’s books have won numerous prestigious awards, including the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal, Children’s Choice Awards, ALA Notable Books, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. In addition to writing and illustrating her books, Hillenbrand has served as the Author and Illustrator in Residence at Kent State University and the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Will Hillenbrand is a highly regarded author and illustrator who loves visiting schools to enlighten his audience with ideas and spark their creative way of seeing and making. Learn more at http://www.willhillenbrand.com.
Noor Hindi
Noor Hindi (she/her/hers) is a Palestinian-American poet and reporter. She is a 2021 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow. Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow is her debut collection of poems. She lives in Dearborn. Learn more at: https://noorhindi.com/
Conrade C. Hinds
Conrade C. Hinds was born in Nashville and graduated from Ball State University, where he studied architecture and industrial technology. He has lived in Ohio for forty years. A registered architect and a retired projects manager with the City of Columbus Department of Public Utilities, he is also a retired adjunct faculty member in the Engineering Technology Department at Columbus State Community College. His latest books is History of Buckeye Inventions, and he has published three other books: The Great Columbus Experiment of 1908, Columbus and the Great Flood of 1913, and Lost Circuses of Ohio.
Janice Hisle
Janice Hisle established herself as a bulldog news reporter—with a heart—during more than two decades as a professional journalist. She would fight, scratch and claw for public records yet wrote tragic stories with a soft touch.
After more than two decades as a full-time writer for daily newspapers, Janice became a freelance writer. She spent eighteen months writing and researching her first book, Submerged: Ryan Widmer, his drowned bride and the justice system.
As a writer for The Cincinnati Enquirer, Janice covered every aspect of the Widmer bathtub-drowning case through three spellbinding trials. Unanswered questions compelled her to write Submerged in time for the tenth anniversary of the case in August 2018. The book’s editor was her former Enquirer colleague, Peter Bronson, who also wrote the introduction and helped Janice publish the work through his company, Chilidog Press.
During her 15 years at the Enquirer, Janice earned awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and from The Press Club of Cleveland. Her award-winning work included articles on teen-driving safety, political campaign contributions, personality profiles, breaking news, investigative database projects and the Widmer case. Janice also became the first Enquirer reporter to do “stand-up” video news reports for the Enquirer’s website, Cincinnati.com.
Janice participated in a panel discussion about the Widmer case at Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, in 2010, and also gave a presentation about the case at the University of Cincinnati’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in 2011.
Janice has been a presenter for a half-dozen police-media relations workshops, including two in 2017-18. She has appeared in video news reports on Cincinnati.com and on the Investigation Discovery network.
Janice formerly worked for The Dayton Daily News, The Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio), and The Record-Courier (Kent-Ravenna, Ohio), and is a current member of The Authors Guild.
Janice graduated summa cum laude from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism/news-editorial.
Her work has focused mainly on public safety and criminal justice, including coverage of dozens of murder cases, with occasional articles on business, health and fitness. When she’s not writing, she is a sought-after nationally certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor.
Her husband, Michael, is a former TV sportscaster and producer. He went on to become a nationally recognized executive sales representative for a Fortune 100 company. He also is a competitive natural bodybuilder and recently attained professional status in that sport.
Kate Hoefler
Kate Hoefler was born and still lives and writes in the rolling hills of Ohio’s Appalachia. She is the author of numerous picture books and loves the book-love her work has received at Ohioana: two of her books, RABBIT AND THE MOTORBIKE and COURAGE HATS, were both Ohioana Book Award finalists and Floyd’s Pick Honor books. Another kids’ book career highlight was when Henry Winkler read RABBIT AND THE MOTORBIKE for Jennifer Garner’s #savewithstories (although only Rabbit was wearing a leather jacket for it). Her newest book is IN THE DARK, and she hopes you’ll find the lightest of lights in it. She loves pottery, being an introvert, and cheese. Follow her on instagram: (@katehoefler).