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): 2025
Elisa Stone Leahy
Elisa Stone Leahy is a queer, Peruvian American children’s author who lives with her husband and kids in Columbus, Ohio. She likes writing about characters with complicated identities. She is the author of Mallory in Full Color and Tethered to Other Stars, which Kirkus Reviews called “beautifully executed.” You can find Elisa online at elisastoneleahy.com
Katie Mazeika
Katie Mazeika is an award-winning author and illustrator who can’t imagine a better job than making books. She loves creating stories based on real people and events. Katie is passionate about highlighting disabled voices in her work. She strongly believes all children should see themselves in books. Katie hopes her work as a creator and advocate creates a space to openly discuss disability and neurodiversity. She does this through presentations, panels, and workshops for educators, kidlit creators, and young readers. You can visit her online at http://www.katiemazeika.com.
T.L. McBeth
T. L. McBeth was born in Findlay, Ohio. As a child, he grew up reading Dr. Seuss and H. A. & Margret Rey (although he mainly looked at the pictures). He studied illustration in college where he developed a love for expressive and minimal characters. In 2015, he moved to New York City to pursue an illustration career and he is currently lucky enough to illustrate picture books full time. He now lives in Bloomington, Indiana and enjoys working from his small home studio in the middle of nowhere. When he does leave the house, he likes to watch the dogs in the neighborhood dog park and visit bookstores for inspiration. He is the illustrator of Stegothesaurus, Triceratopposite, Ogilvy, Ducks! and the Big Words Small Stories series, and the author/illustrator of Robot in Love, the Randy, the Badly Drawn Horse series, and I Am NOT the Easter Bunny! T. L. was previously an artist-in-residence at Wetherby-Pembridge School New York. His work has been featured by Macmillan, Scholastic, Penguin Random House, Threadless, McDonald’s, TODAY, The Wall Street Journal, the Society of Illustrators and is part of the permanent collection of the Mazza Museum.
Mindy McGinnis
Mindy McGinnis is an Edgar Award-winning novelist who writes across multiple genres, including post-apocalyptic, historical, thriller, contemporary, mystery, and fantasy. While her settings may change, you can always count on Mindy’s books to deliver grit, truth, and an unflinching look at humanity and the world around us. Learn more at: https://www.mindymcginnis.com/.
David Meyers
A graduate of Miami University and The Ohio State University, David Meyers can’t seem to keep from writing stuff. His lifelong interest in history has led him to turn out a number of non-fiction books on a variety of topics, especially those neglected by others. He frequently collaborates with his daughter, Elise Meyers Walker. He has also authored several novels and a handful of works for the stage, including two full length musicals. In 2019, he was inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame for his contributions to Ohio history. Learn more at: https://www.explodingstove.com/
Elise Meyers Walker
Dia Mixon
Dia Mixon has a passion for introducing children to new languages and cultures. As a Spanish teacher, with a Master of Education in Bilingual-Bicultural Education, she continues to seek new ways for readers to build cultural awareness and connect with the characters she creates. Dia published her debut children’s book, One Whole Me, in 2021, and promptly released her second book, When I Feel at Home, in 2022. Her upcoming project, The World That I See: Europe is inspired by her beautiful, neurodivergent child and is set to release in February 2025. She currently teaches high school Spanish in her hometown, Columbus, Ohio. Learn more at: https://www.el-mundo-mixon.com/
Ashley Hope Pérez
Ashley Hope Pérez grew up in Texas and is the author of three award-winning novels for young adults. Out of Darkness received a Printz Honor and the Tomás Rivera Book Award. She is an assistant professor of world literatures at The Ohio State University and lives in Columbus with her two sons.
Damaris Puñales-Alpízar
Dr. Damaris Puñales–Alpízar is Professor of Hispanic Studies, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Director of the International Studies program, and the Executive Sponsor of Alianza Latina/Latin Alliance at Case Western Reserve University. She studied Journalism at the University of Havana and has worked as a journalist in Cuba, Belize, and Mexico. In Belize, she founded Conexión, the first bilingual and trans-border newspaper, and in Mexico, she was a correspondent for regional and national mass media outlets. She directs two study abroad programs at CWRU in Spain.
Her scholarly publications include the books La Maldita Circunstancia, Ensayos Sobre Literatura Cubana (2020) and Escrito en Cirílico: El Ideal Soviético en la Cultura Cubana Posnoventa (2012). Her next book is coming out by the National Autonomous University of Mexico with the title Códigos Rojos: Geopolíticas de la Traducción Durante la Guerra Fría, Cuba y el Bloque del Este. She has edited the volumes Asedios al Caimán Letrado: Literatura y Poder en la Revolución Cubana (with Emilio J. Gallardo Saborido and Jesús Gómez de Tejada, 2018) and El Atlántico Como Frontera: Mediaciones Culturales Entre Cuba y España (2014). She has coordinated the special dossiers “Cuba: A Cultural Prospection,” for the academic journal Cuadernos del Sur–Letras, (National University of the South, Argentina, 2021), and “Cuba: The Soviet Flavor of a Tropical Island. A Visit 20 Years Later,” for La Habana Elegante: Revista Semestral de Literatura y Cultura Cubana, Caribeña, Latinoamericana, y de Estética No. 51 (Spring-Summer 2012). Her scholarly articles have appeared in leading journals in the United States, Cuba, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Slovenia, Argentina, Canada, Peru, France and Spain, such as Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Caribbean Studies, Revista Iberoamericana, La Habana Elegante, Kamchatka, Vallejo&Co, Revista de Letras, Artelogie, Cuadernos del Sur–Letras, Teatro, Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos, etc.
In 2021, Dr. Puñales-Alpízar was one of the two faculty awardees at Case Western Reserve University for the Flora Stone Mather Woman of Achievement and Mather Spotlight Award. That same year, she won an Expanding Horizons Initiative Grant to organize the international conference “Translation Practices during the Cold War: A Multidisciplinary Approach.” In 2018, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Russia to complete research for her current scholarly project on the geopolitics of socialist translations. During the 2013-2015 period, Puñales-Alpízar was elected delegate from the Great Lakes region to the Modern Language Association. Regularly, she writes and translates for the Collective Arts Network Journal, CAN, in Cleveland, and publishes op-ed pieces in a Spanish newspaper. She was a Member of the Board of LatinUS Theater Company in Cleveland, and is the founder and president of the non-profit organization Trasatlántica. Poetry and Scholarship (https://trasatlantica.org/). She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the academic journal Caribe.
Skye Quinlan
Skye Quinlan (they/them) is a queer, autistic author of YA fiction. They’re an avid reader, have an absurd amount of crystals and gemstones, and if they’re not tending to their garden, you can usually find them playing Animal Crossing. Skye lives in Ohio with their wife, two dogs, a snake, and two lizards. Learn more at: https://skyequinlanbooks.com