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.
- You are searching within category(ies): Fiction
Sam Subity
Sam Subity loves writing stories that explore the magic and wonder of being a kid and is thrilled to share his writing with readers everywhere—both the young in age and the young at heart. When he’s not writing, you might find him running the trails of northern California where the endless, winding miles past fog and ocean inspire stories of adventure and mystery. Or he might be mowing his lawn. Because that’s what adults sometimes have to do. But in either case, Sam is very likely imagining himself fighting mythical creatures or at the prow of a dragon ship feeling the wind and sea spray on his face alongside his own Viking queen and their two Vikelets. His greatest hope is that in reading his books, you too may be transported to another place where, for a little while, you can exchange the ordinary for the extraordinary. https://www.samsubity.com
Joe Sutphin
Joe Sutphin is an illustrator and cartoonist of books for young readers. His work includes the Eisner Award winning Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, based on the beloved book by Richard Adams, as well as the re-envisioned, illustrated classics Little Pilgrim’s Progress and Little Christmas Carol. Joe lives in Central Ohio with his wife Gina and five amazing cats.…
Read MoreJoe Sutphin is an illustrator and cartoonist of books for young readers. His work includes the Eisner Award winning Watership Down: The Graphic Novel, based on the beloved book by Richard Adams, as well as the re-envisioned, illustrated classics Little Pilgrim’s Progress and Little Christmas Carol. Joe lives in Central Ohio with his wife Gina and five amazing cats. Learn more at joesutphin.com
Jordan Riley Swan
Jordan Riley Swan is a wild word hunter living in the far and dangerous reaches of rural Ohio. He spends his nights tracking down big-game stories, capturing them in paper cages, and training them to be better tales. The Heart’s Bidding was the first novel he’d dared to use the keys of his typewriter to release back into the wild.
S. Andrew Swann
S. Andrew Swann is the pen name of Steven Swiniarski. He’s married and lives in the Greater Cleveland area where he has lived all of his adult life. He has a background in mechanical engineering and—besides writing—works as a Database Manager for one of the largest private child services agencies in the Cleveland area. He has published over 20 novels since 1993, which include science fiction, fantasy and horror. Currently he is working on the Dragon* series of light fantasy novels for DAW books, the first of which, Dragon•Princess, came out May 2014. The second, Dragon•Thief is expected in 2015.
Dave Szalay
Dave Szalay is an award winning illustrator, working author, and college professor. Dave, his wife, and three cats live along a steam that runs through the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. They have two adult sons and a granddaughter. http://www.daveszalay.com
Don Tassone
After a long career in the corporate world, Don Tassone has returned to his creative writing roots. He is the author of two novels and nine short story collections. He and his wife Liz live in Loveland, Ohio. They have four children. Visit him at https://www.dontassone.com.
Christine Taylor-Butler
A native of Cleveland Ohio, Christine Taylor-Butler is the author of more than eighty books and short stories for children including Rosa Parks (Scholastic), the award winning “Sacred Mountain: Everest” (Lee and Low), and a middle grade science fiction adventure series The Lost Tribes (Move Books). Although she’s always wanted to be a writer, Christine was encouraged by her math teacher to try her hand at engineering. As a result, and always an overachiever, Christine holds dual degrees in Civil Engineering and Art & Design from MIT. Still the tug to write was too great. Now she’s known as much for her science writing as her fiction. To learn more visit:
Thao Thai
Thao Thai is the author of Banyan Moon, the July 2023 Read with Jenna title, Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, and Book of the Month selection. Banyan Moon was also selected by booksellers as an IndieNext pick and longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. A recipient of the 2024 Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence Award, Thao Thai’s work has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, WIRED, Elle, Lit Hub, and other publications. She lives in central Ohio with my husband and daughter. Learn more: https://thaowrites.com/
Sam Thomas
Sam Thomas has a PhD in history with a focus on Reformation England and recently leaped from the tenure track into a teaching position at a secondary school near Cleveland, Ohio.
Read MoreSam Thomas has a PhD in history with a focus on Reformation England and recently leaped from the tenure track into a teaching position at a secondary school near Cleveland, Ohio.
Chera Thompson
Chera Thompson was born and raised in California’s San Fernando Valley. She attended Kent State University and has a BS in Journalism from Ohio University and an MS in Adult Education from Buffalo State College. Her career in travel enabled her to see a lot of the world. Her later career, teaching English as a Second Language to adults, brought her much gratification. Her fiction has been published in the Los Angeles Review and was selected as a finalist in the Glimmer Train Short Fiction Contest. Other publication credits include Let’s Have Fun Vol. 2, Queen City Flash, and Have a NYC 3. Most recently her non-fiction pieces were published in Pamela Des Barres’s Let It Bleed: How to Write a Rockin’ Memoir. She lives with her husband and two dogs in a bluff overlooking Lake Erie and enjoys traveling with their two adult children and collecting beach glass. http://www.cherathompson.com https://www.facebook.com/author.cherathompson/ ATimeToWander@gmail.com (We love hearing our readers thoughts and comments)
A TIME TO WANDER
An email exchange between former college lovers take them back to their college years at Kent State, the 1970’s. The Vietnam War is raging. Anti-war rallies hit the breaking point. It was a time of bell bottoms, vinyl, incense, free love, and travel by thumb. Kris and Lena on May 1, 1970 were strangers on two quite different paths, a thrown beer bottle shatters the lives they have known, bringing them together by chance. Lena is attracted to Kris and his live-in-the-moment personality. When he invites her to join him on a winter break hitchhiking trip, she kicks aside her uptight attitude and accepts the adventure. The trip is harrowing at times, comical during others, and poignant as Lena and Kris learn about themselves and each other. The events that shape and seal the fate of their relationship in unpredictable ways is revealed in the authors’ female/male alternating perspectives. Inspired by true events, A TIME TO WANDER is a magical tale of freedom before the future takes hold.
THE WRITER’S BLOCK INTERVIEW ON LA TALK RADIO https://drive.google.com/…/19Ek-y4eViqfn59N_J0Fl4pr1-…/view…
AKRON BEACON JOURNAL PRESS RELEASE
Medium.com Book Review https://medium.com/@patpendleton/heady-days-6b19b15badba
5 STAR REVIEW BY READER’S FAVORITE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR https://www.amazon.com/gp/customerreviews/R2ZZV3QL6W0PWH/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1625268750
–Teri Case, Author of TIGER DRIVE and IN THE DOGHOUSE
EXCERPT from A TIME TO WANDER
The cursor hovers over the SEND button. I swivel my chair away from the screen and gaze out the window. Slowly I get up from the desk and head toward the attic. Sitting in a cobwebbed corner is my grandmother’s old steamer trunk she gave me when I left for college. I open the lid and catch the faint scent of patchouli. I rummage through sealing wax, sandalwood incense sticks, and tarot cards. There, lying at the bottom… my college journal. I slide my hand over the time-worn cover and open it up, my heart pounding. Should I be doing this? A photo sticks out from between the pages. A long-haired Kris with wire-rimmed glasses, patched jeans and an army jacket stands holding a cardboard sign with the word “Chicago” scrawled in black magic marker. Next to him, a smiling girl flashes the peace sign. Silver hoop earrings peek out from under her long frizzy hair and even in the faded photo, there’s a shine in her eyes. I remember that girl. And that chance meeting in the middle of all the chaos