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): 2016
Christine Hayes
Christine Hayes spent her childhood in Columbus restaurants while her father gathered tidbits for his Columbus Citizen-Journal columns. She published a book of these columns, The Ben Hayes Scrapbook. Today Christine assists in the Acorn Bookshop in Grandview, writes a column for the Short North Gazette, and as Ramona Moon makes art cars and collage/assemblage. She graduated from UC Irvine in theatre, taught Montessori school, and lived in San Francisco for 27 years before returning to Columbus.
John Hegenberger
Award-winning author, John Hegenberger has produced more than a dozen books since mid-2015, including several popular series: Stan Wade LAPI in 1959, Eliot Cross Columbus-based PI in 1988, and TRIPLEYE, featuring the first private eye agency on Mars. He’s the father of three, tennis enthusiast, collector of silent films, hiker, Francophile, B.A. Comparative Lit., ex-Navy, and happily married for 48 years and counting. Active member of SFWA, PWA, SinC and ITW. His novel SPYFALL won a 2016 award at Killer Nashville.
Nancy Herriman
Nancy Herriman has fronted a cover band, acted on stage, and worked in the tech industry as an engineer. Writing is her current and longest lasting passion. She has won the Daphne du Maurier award, and Publishers Weekly says her A Mystery of Old San Francisco series “…brings 1867 San Francisco to vivid life.” Her latest release is No Rest For The Departed. When not writing, she enjoys singing, gabbing about writing, and eating dark chocolate. Learn more at: https://www.nancyherriman.com/
Kerrie Logan Hollihan
Author Kerrie Hollihan writes award-winning nonfiction for kids and teens. Her new book is BONES UNEARTHED!, third in the Creepy and True series for Abrams Books for Young Readers. Following GHOSTS UNVEILED! The first, MUMMIES EXPOSED!, garnered four four-star reviews.
Kerrie’s books have been honored as “notables” by the Children’s Book Council/National Council for the Social Studies and more. She’s especially thrilled that Mummies! is accessible for vision impaired readers through the Library of Congress. Her very first book, ISAAC NEWTON & PHYSICS FOR KIDS, has been printed in six languages.
Kerrie belongs to the highly regarded nonfiction author group iNK Think Tank and its interactive partner, Authors on Call – http://www.inkthinktank.org. Catch her three-minute talks about lots of things at iNK’s Nonfiction Minute, https://www.nonfictionminute.org.
Kerrie enjoys meeting young readers during school visits both in person and on the web. She offers kid-friendly activities with other nonfiction authors at Hands-on-Books, http://hands-on-books.blogspot.com/.
Kerrie also reaches out to inquisitive older adults–historical societies, book groups, and more–with programs speaking to their life experience. Get in touch on her contact page: https://kerriehollihan.com/contact/
Tim Hudak
Timothy Hudak is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in History. He has been studying the history of football at the high school and collegiate levels for more than 25 years. All the Way to #1 is Mr. Hudak’s eighth book and the first ever written to cover the history of high school football national champions. In addition, he has written almost four dozen articles and book reviews on high school and college athletics and occasionally teaches a course about the history of college football at local community colleges. Mr. Hudak has appeared on Cleveland area radio and television programs discussing high school football and has been used as a resource by local newspaper writers and the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Tim Hudak and his wife, Patti Graziano, live in Cleveland, Ohio.
Aiko Ikegami
Aiko was born in Tokyo, Japan. Since a young age she has loved drawing, painting, and creating stories. At age of 6 she has started learning oil painting. In 1993 Aiko came to the United States where she has studied psychology at Arizona State University. She continued her education at the University of Texas at Austin where she receiving a Ph.D in Neuropharmacology. She worked as a neuropharmacologist and did research on brain chemistry. After working as a neuropharmacologist for years, she followed her heart and decided making picture books. Aiko lives in Ohio with her dog and cat. Aiko also loves gardening and playing cello.
Janet Irvin
J. E. (Janet) Irvin is a career educator and the award-winning author of A PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT, THE DARK END OF THE RAINBOW, THE RULES OF THE GAME, and THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF ROSE STONE . Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in a variety of print and online journals, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Oyez Review, FLIGHTS, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine. Irvin holds degrees from Ohio University, the University of Dayton, and the University of Cincinnati. An avid hiker and canoeist, Irvin resides with her husband in southwestern Ohio on the edge of a nature park.
Michele Jakubowski
Raised in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, Michele Jakubowski has the teachers in her life to thank for her love of reading and writing. While writing has always been a passion for Michele, she believes it is the books she has read throughout the years, and the teachers who assigned them, that have made her the storyteller she is today. Her books include the Sidney & Sydney and Perfectly Poppy series as well as The Sleuths of Somerville and Ashley Small and Ashlee Tall. Michele lives in Powell, Ohio, with her husband, John, and their children, Jack and Mia.
Richard O Jones
After twenty-five years writing the first draft of history as a writer and editor for his hometown newspaper, the Hamilton Journal-News, Richard O Jones left the grind of daily journalism in the fall of 2013 for a life of true crime. He is the author of two books on the History Press imprint, Cincinnati’s Savage Seamstress: The Shocking Edythe Klumpp Murder Scandal (October, 2014) and Ohio Bluebeard: The Strange Confessions of Alfred Knapp (Spring, 2015), and maintains the True Crime Historian blog, where he remembers the scoundrels, scandals and scourges of America’s past and publishes the Two-Dollar Terror series of novella-length ebooks. Mr. Jones, a creative writing graduate of Miami University, Ohio, spent most of his career as an arts journalist and has won numerous awards for his reviews and profiles. In 2004, he was named a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts Theatre and Musical Theatre program at the Annenberg School of Journalism. The Ohio Associated Press named him Feature Writer of the Year in 2011. Since leaving the newspaper world, Mr. Jones has become an active member of his local history community as a board member of the Butler County Historical Society, a member of the History Speakers Bureau and a regular presenter at Miami University in a program titled “Yesterday’s News.” The Michael J. Colligan History Project of Miami University presented Mr. Jones with a Special Recognition for Contributions to Public History for his coverage of the Centennial Commemoration of the Great Flood of 1913. Visit him online at http://www.truecrimehistorian.com.
John Kachuba
John Kachuba is the award-winning author of thirteen books. His most recent book is The Bottle Conjuror, an historical fantasy novel set in 18th-century England. Haycorn Smith and the Castle Ghost is a paranormal novel for middle-grade readers set in the haunted Chateau Laroche in Loveland, Ohio. Other novels include Dark Entry, a paranormal novel, and The Savage Apostle and Women of the Way, both historical fiction.…
Read MoreJohn Kachuba is the award-winning author of thirteen books. His most recent book is The Bottle Conjuror, an historical fantasy novel set in 18th-century England. Haycorn Smith and the Castle Ghost is a paranormal novel for middle-grade readers set in the haunted Chateau Laroche in Loveland, Ohio. Other novels include Dark Entry, a paranormal novel, and The Savage Apostle and Women of the Way, both historical fiction.
John’s nonfiction, Shapeshifters: A History, was published in June 2019 and was a finalist in the 2020 Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award. Several other works of nonfiction are about ghosts and the paranormal, humor writing, and occupational safety and health.
John holds MA degrees in Creative Writing from Antioch University Midwest and Ohio University and presently teaches Creative Writing at Ohio University and the Gotham Writers Workshop. He is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Horror Writers Association, and the American Library Association’s Authors for Libraries.
John is a frequent speaker at conferences, universities and libraries, and on podcasts, radio and TV. John’s website is http://johnkachuba.com