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.
Kip Knott
Jeff Knowles
Jeff Knowles was born in Cleveland in 1948 at the front edge of the Baby Boom generation. At age five, his family moved to Northfield—exactly half way between Cleveland and Akron and in the middle of the Cuyahoga River Valley that is at the heart of his book. Despite undergraduate and graduate degrees in history, he did not come to fully appreciate the historic and cultural significance of his home place until middle age. He retired in 2004 after a thirty-year research career in criminal justice, the last twenty-eight of which were served as Director of the Ohio Statistical Analysis Center in the Office of Criminal Justice Services. His written works have included two books, What of the Night? and Integrity with Two Eye, as well as articles for Ohio Magazine, Cincinnati Magazine, and several others.
Knowles and his wife of forty-six years, Lezlee, have three children: Kathi, Kimberly and Mark, and six grandchildren: Aaron, Andrew, Emma, Kate, Jack and Matthew. A diverse group of places have served as his homes, including Cleveland, Northfield, Carter County, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia and—for the past forty years, Columbus, Ohio.
Jen Knox
Jen Knox is the author of We Arrive Uninvited (Steel Toe Books, 2023), which won the Steel Toe Books Award in prose, and After the Gazebo (Rain Mountain Press, 2015). Her short fiction and creative nonfiction can be found in journals such as Saturday Evening Post and McSweeney’s Internet Quarterly. She founded and runs Unleash Creatives, a holistic arts organization based in Ohio. Learn more at: jenknox.com
Christine Kohler
An Ohio native, Christine (Rhodeback) Kohler is the author of 17 nonfiction and fiction books for children and teens. A graduate of the University of Hawaii, she lived in Japan and Guam, the setting for her debut novel NO SURRENDER SOLDIER (Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster). She is also published in educational books, articles, poetry and photography.…
Read MoreAn Ohio native, Christine (Rhodeback) Kohler is the author of 17 nonfiction and fiction books for children and teens. A graduate of the University of Hawaii, she lived in Japan and Guam, the setting for her debut novel NO SURRENDER SOLDIER (Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster). She is also published in educational books, articles, poetry and photography.
Kohler now lives in Texas with her husband, whom she met at Kent State University. Contact her at ckohler@christinekohlerbooks.com ; website http://www.christinekohlerbooks.com/ ; facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChristineKohlerbooks/ ; twitter https://twitter.com/christinekohle1
Wendy Koile
Wendy Koile has spent most of her life exploring the nooks and crannies of Ohio. When not traveling or writing, Wendy works full-time as the Director of Teaching and Learning at a community college in Ohio. She holds a masters degree in teaching and one in English. She currently has four books published with The History Press and is working on ideas for the next one.
Leonard Kress
Leonard Kress grew up in and around Philadelphia and studied religion at Temple University (BA), Slavic Literature and Folklore at Indiana University and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and Poetry at Columbia University (MFA). He has published 8 collections of poetry, most recently The Orpheus Complex (Main Street Rag, 2009), Thirteens (Aureole Press, 2010), Braids & Other Sestinas (Seven Kitchens Press, 20110, and Living in the Candy Store (Finishing Line Press, 2011).
He has also completed a new verse translation of the 19th century, Romantic epic, Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and translations from Polish have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Massachusetts Review, Harvard Review, Iowa Review, Crab Orchard Review, etc. He has been awarded grants in poetry and playwriting from the Ohio Arts Council and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and was the invited American poet to the Warsaw Autumn of Poetry in 2006.
Kress currently teaches philosophy, religion and creative writing at Owens College in northwest Ohio.
Trudy Krisher
Trudy Krisher is an award-winning author of young adult novels, children’s picture books, and a scholarly biography. Her recent biography, Fanny Seward: A Life, won a Silver Medal from the Independent Publishers Association. Awards for her historical novels for young adults include the International Reading Association Award, a Jefferson Cup Honor Award, the American Library Association Best Books award, and many others. She has spoken at many local, regional, and national forums including the American Library Association, The National Conference of Teachers of English, and the New York Public Library. She is a retired professor from the Department of Liberal Arts, Communication, and Social Sciences at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. She currently hosts a public access television show in Dayton, Ohio called “The Writer’s Nook.” She has been featured as part of the Dayton region’s PBS-TV initiative “The Great American Read.” You can learn more about her at http://www.trudykrisherauthor.com.
Education: B.A., College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
M.Ed., College of New Jersey, Trenton, New Jersey
Selected Publications:
Bark Park. Children’s Picture Book. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane Books, 2019.
Fanny Seward: A Life. Biography. Syracuse University Press. 2015.
“An Affectionate Farewell”: The Story of Old Bob and Old Abe. Children’s picture book. Bunker Hill Publishing. 2015.
Fallout: A Novel. Young Adult Novel. New York: Holiday House. 2006.
Uncommon Faith: A Novel. Young Adult Novel. New York: Holiday House. 2003.
“We Loved Lucy.” Short Story solicited for Time Capsule: Short Stories about Teenagers throughout the Twentieth Century, edited by Don Gallo, New York, Delacorte Press, 1999. Laurel Leaf paperback released through Bantam Doubleday Dell, New York, 2001.
Kinship: A Novel. Young Adult Novel. Random House. 1997. Laurel Leaf paperback released through Bantam Doubleday Dell, New York, 1999. Audio recording from Recorded Books, 2001.
Writing for a Reader: Peers, Process, and Progress in the Writing Classroom. College Writing Textbook. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. 1994.
Spite Fences: A Novel. Young Adult Novel. New York: Delacorte. 1994. Norwegian rights acquired by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1997. Laurel Leaf paperback released through Bantam Doubleday Dell, New York, 1996. Audio recording from Recorded Books, 2000.
Kathy’s Hats: A Story of Hope. Children’s Picture Book. Chicago: Albert Whitman & Company, 1992. Japanese rights acquired by Hyoronsha, Tokyo, Japan, 1997.
The Writer’s Image: Literary Photographs by Jill Krementz. Introduction by Kurt Vonnegut. Preface by Trudy Krisher. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
Robert Kroeger
Dr. Robert Kroeger, a native of Youngstown, graduated from Ohio State University’s College of Dentistry, served four years of active duty in the US Navy, ending with the rank of lieutenant commander. He and his late wife Brenda moved to Cincinnati where they raised five children and Dr. Kroeger practiced general dentistry from 1977 to 2010, when he retired. He and his wife Laura also live in Cincinnati, where they enjoy spending time with nine grandchildren. [INSERT IMAGE A-63 CAPTION: Robert Kroeger. Photograph, David Bimschleger] Dr. Kroeger is a second-generation artist, though, unlike his father Francis, who held an art degree from Notre Dame, his professional art career blossomed later in life. Though he did not immediately follow in his father’s footsteps, Robert’s career as a dentist allowed him to study color values and facial esthetic principles in smile design. He is the author of Historic Barns of Ohio, a book that features a barn, its painting, and its essay in each of Ohio’s 88 counties. Dr. Kroeger has also written two books on dentistry and seven books on golf in Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland, including To The 14th Tee, The Links of Wales, The Golf Courses of Old Tom Morris, Golf on the Links of Ireland, Golf on the Links of England, Complete Guide to the Golf Courses of Scotland, and The Secrets of Islay. This is his second book on old barns but hopefully not his last. Learn more at: https://www.barnart.weebly.com/
Lisa Krok
Lisa Krok, MLIS, MEd, is the adult and teen services manager at Morley Library in the Cleveland, Ohio, area and a former teacher. She is a regular presenter at the Virginia Hamilton Multicultural Literature Conference, and her passion is reaching marginalized teens and reluctant readers through young adult literature. Krok was appointed to the 2019-2020 YALSA Presidential Advisory Task Force. In January of 2020, she will begin her appointment on the Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) 2021 committee. Krok was also selected for the 2018 and 2019 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers teams, which earned her a 2018 YALSA Volunteer of the Year Award. She writes for School Library Journal’s Teen Librarian Toolbox and has also blogged for American Libraries magazine and YALSA’s The Hub.