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.
Courtney Elizabeth Mauk
Courtney Elizabeth Mauk grew up in Copley, Ohio, and studied creative writing at Oberlin College. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in The Literary Review, PANK, Wigleaf, and FiveChapters, among other publications. She is an assistant editor at Barrelhouse Magazine and teaches at The Juilliard School and The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Manhattan with her husband.
Susannah Maynard
Susannah Maynard is a lifelong animal lover, animal rescue advocate, and pet photographer. Long before she picked up her first camera, she captured images of the world around her with a pad of paper and a box of crayons. From her early childhood, Susannah was surrounded by a house full of cats, beginning her lifelong love of animals. After trying a variety of careers, from fundraising to publishing, Susannah was at a career crossroads when, in 2011, she adopted her heart dog, Mr. Bojangles, and discovered there was such a profession as pet photographer. Deciding to turn her love of both photography and pets into a career, Pet Love Photography was born. Susannah has spent the last several years photographing hundreds of rescue and client pets. She primarily works on location to make sure that her pet subjects are as comfortable as possible in environments that are familiar to them.
Katie Mazeika
Katie Mazeika is an author and illustrator who can’t imagine a better job than making books. Katie specializes in telling stories based on real people and events and likes to highlight disabled voices in her work. Katie’s the author/illustrator of Annette Feels Free and Beulah Has a Hunch! Katie has illustrated several other books including three in the Chicken Soup for the Soul: Babies series. When she’s not drawing Katie likes to spend her time gardening or reading other people’s books. Katie currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio. You can visit her online at http://www.katiemazeika.com.
James McBride
James McBride is the author of the New York Times–bestselling Oprah’s Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, the American classic The Color of Water, the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle at St. Anna, the story collection Five-Carat Soul, and Kill ’Em and Leave, a biography of James Brown. One of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024 and the recipient of a National Humanities Medal, as well as being an accomplished musician, McBride is a distinguished writer in residence at New York University. Learn more: jamesmcbride.com
Kristina McBride
Kristina McBride has published four novels for young adults – THE TENSION OF OPPOSITES (2010), ONE MOMENT (2012), A MILLION TIMES GOODNIGHT (2016), and THE BAKERSVILLE DOZEN (2017). Kristina is a former high school English teacher and yearbook advisor, as well as an adjunct professor at Antioch University Midwest and Wright State University. She loves leading writers’ workshops for all ages, including teachers and librarians aiming to lead to student workshops. Kristina has a thing for music, trees, purses, and chocolate. You might be surprised to learn that Kristina was almost kidnapped when she was a child. She also bookstalks people on a regular basis. Kristina lives in Ohio with her husband and two children.
Erin McCahan
Erin McCahan (pronounced McCann) is the author of Love and Other Foreign Words and the forthcoming The Lake Effect. Love and Other Foreign Words was named one of the Best Summer Books of 2014 by Publishers Weekly, is a Junior Library Guild selection, and has been published in ten languages. Visit her online at http://www.erinmccahan.com.
Cory McCarthy
Cory McCarthy is the author of numerous books for young readers including Man O’ War, The Color of Rain, and Breaking Sky. They live with their family in Vermont, where they teach writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Learn more at: https://onceandfuturestories.com/
Brian McClellan
Brian lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife, two dogs, a cat, and between 6,000 and 60,000 honey bees (depending on the time of year).
He began writing on Wheel of Time role playing websites at fifteen. Encouraged toward writing by his parents, he started working on short stories and novellas in his late teens. He went on to major in English with an emphasis on creative writing at Brigham Young University. It was here he met Brandon Sanderson, who encouraged Brian’s feeble attempts at plotting and characters more than he should have.
Brian continued to study writing not just as an art but as a business and was determined this would be his life-long career. He attended Orson Scott Card’s Literary Bootcamp in 2006. In 2008, he received honorable mention in the Writers of the Future Contest.
In November 2011, The Powder Mage Trilogy sold at auction to Orbit Books. The trilogy is out now: Promise of Blood, The Crimson Campaign, and The Autumn Republic, with a new trilogy set to begin in 2016.
Karen McClintock
Karen A. McClintock, PhD, is a psychologist specializing in family secrets and shame recovery. She is a national workshop leader and teaches human sexuality at Southern Oregon University. She is the author of four previous books, including Sexual Shame: An Urgent Call to Healing and Shame-Less Lives, Grace-Full Congregations.
Jim McCormac
Jim McCormac worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for thirty-one years, first as a botanist and then on special projects involving animals, primarily birds, for the Division of Wildlife. He is the author or coauthor of several books, the “Nature” columnist for the Columbus Dispatch, and an avid, frequently published photographer. https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Gardening+for+Moths