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.
Tricia Orr
Tricia’s poems have been published in Zoomorphic, Rust + Moth, The Loft Anthology (Poetry Prize finalist 2013), Entelelchy International: A Journal of Contemporary Ideas, A Hundred Gourds and Contemporary Haibun.
After living in New Hampshire for 13 years, Tricia returned to her rust belt roots in Cleveland, Ohio in 2013 where she writes, tutors refugees from Somalia and Bhutan, and pulls her old dog around the block in a Radio Flyer.
Social Media:
Twitter @writeorrelse
Website Triciaorr.com
Paul Orshoski
Paul Orshoski, children’s author and poet, is a former school teacher, coach and principal from Sandusky, Ohio. He writes witty, humorous, rhyming children’s books and poems. Paul is the author of thirteen children’s books published by Treasure Bay, Inc. of Novato, California. Several of his books are part of Treasure Bay’s “We Read Phonics” series, including “Where is My Frog?”, “Robot Man”, and “Sports Dream”, which were selected as Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Honor winners in 2011. Paul has four books published in the “We Both Read” Treasure Bay series entitled, “My Sitter is a T-Rex!”, “The Mouse in My House”, “The Mouse in My House / Un raton en mi casa”, and “The Ant and The Pancake”. Paul is also the author of several poems that have appeared in poetry anthologies These include: “My Teacher’s in Detention”, “Dinner with Dracula”, “I’ve Been Burping in the Classroom”, “I Hope I Don’t Strike Out”, and “What I Did on my Summer Vacation”. Paul’s poems have also appeared in the following magazines: “Boys’ Quest”, “Fun For Kidz”, “Hopscotch For Girls”, “Scholastic Action”, and “The School Administrator”. Paul enjoys making kids giggle during school visits by enthusiastically performing his poems and books in small or large group settings wherever he is asked to present.
Bill Osinski
Bill Osinski was a newspaper reporter for 36 years and first covered the Logan murder case for the Akron Beacon Journal. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, he now writes books and screenplays, two of which have been optioned for motion picture projects. He lives with his wife Eileen near Atlanta, Georgia.
Taylor Overbey
Taylor Overbey was the managing editor of GLAD, the Christian Humor Magazine for three years in the early 1980’s. It was here that his numerous comic stories were published in over 17 issues. After leaving GLAD, he moved to California where he wrote and drew short stories for Blackthorne Comics titles Laffin’ Gas and The Legion of Stupid Heroes, and self-syndicated a weekly comic feature called, Curious Words and Fascinating Phrases, about word and phrase origins. He later wrote, performed puppets, and did animated cartoons for a children’s DVD series, A Street Called Straight.
Taylor wrote and illustrated his first children’s book, The SNIT and George Franklin Whit for his son, Elias, when Elias was in the first grade. But nine years later, with the arrival of his second child, Taylor realized he had to think about how to earn a living for the next two decades. So on the first day back to school, the 54-year-old felt very out of place among the 18-20 year olds, and the teacher who was at least a decade younger than himself. At the completion of his undergraduate program, Taylor was offered an adjunct teaching position, something he had never considered, and became excited at the prospect. While in a graduate level children’s illustration course, he wrote The I-Wants and the Gimmies for his daughter, Sophia.
“My father used to call my sister and me, ‘Grab’ and ‘Snatch’, ” says Overbey, “although I was never sure which was which. It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I saw they don’t like to share, naturally. Everything is ‘Mine!’ That, and my father’s nicknames were the inspiration for The I-Wants and the Gimmies.”
He continued on to complete his Master’s degree and is now pursuing a career as a full professor. He lives in Michigan with his wife, Youla, and two children and intends to continue writing children’s books, freelancing as an illustrator and animator, and painting.
Amanda Page
Amanda Page is a writer living in Columbus, Ohio.
Eliot Parker
Eliot Parker is an award-winning author. His latest collection of short stories, Snapshots was a finalist in short story genre by the American Fiction Awards as well as the Readers Favorite International Book Awards. He is also the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance.…
Read MoreEliot Parker is an award-winning author. His latest collection of short stories, Snapshots was a finalist in short story genre by the American Fiction Awards as well as the Readers Favorite International Book Awards. He is also the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing and his third novel, Code for Murder, was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. Eliot is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and he recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels. In 2019, he received the JUG Award by the West Virginia Writers, Inc. organization for his creative work as well as his role in promoting writers and the literary arts in his home state of West Virginia. Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. The program is the most listened to podcast program on the network. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches writing at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.
Wolfgang Parker
Wolfgang Parker is the accidental author and illustrator of the Crime Cats children’s mystery series. He wrote the first volume, Crime Cats: Missing, as a gift for his nineteen nieces and nephews, and soon found people of all ages enjoyed reading the adventures of the Chicken-Boy of Clintonville and his cat detective partners. The series has won nine publishing awards. Parker was the recipient of the 2018 OELMA Literacy Leadership Award and voted one of Columbus’ best authors in the 2015 ColumbusUnderground.com reader’s poll. Too Scary to Read Alone is Parker’s first contribution to children’s horror. The abomination known as Vilnius Oorte has haunted Central Ohio for more than 50 years, though its exact origin is unknown. Too Scary to Read Alone is the first publication to feature the “art” that Oorte has spawned and unleashed. All are advised to approach with extreme caution.
Celeste Parsons
Celeste Parsons lives outside of Nelsonville in a log house built on a former dairy farm, with her husband
Jim, her Westie dog Spook, and a revolving population of deer, turkeys, chipmunks, hummingbirds, and
other wildlife. She enjoys gardening, anything having to do with fabric or thread, reading, and bicycle
touring with Jim on their tandem bike (64,000 miles since the year 2000, and counting). She is also an
enthusiastic member of the ABC Players and thinks of Stuart’s Opera House as her second home. She
has written poems, plays, technical documentation, and newspaper articles since childhood. This is her
first published book.
Sam Pathy
Sam Pathy was born and raised on the North Side of Chicago. In the early 1970s his mom and his aunt took him to Ladies Day games at Wrigley Field to cheer on his beloved Cubs. Before each game began he watched batting practice, begged his heroes for autographs, and salivated over the myriad of concession items.…
Read MoreSam Pathy was born and raised on the North Side of Chicago. In the early 1970s his mom and his aunt took him to Ladies Day games at Wrigley Field to cheer on his beloved Cubs. Before each game began he watched batting practice, begged his heroes for autographs, and salivated over the myriad of concession items. They were the best days of his childhood. His youthful love affair with Wrigley Field turned into an obsession. Twenty-seven years ago he vowed to find out everything he could about the ballpark. Wrigley Field Year-by-Year is the written result. He is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and his work has appeared in The Baseball Research Journal. He received both a B.S. in Elementary Education and an MLS degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1989 he has worked as a youth services librarian at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, OH.
Karen A. Patterson
Award winning author Karen A. Patterson has recently released Recipes from Ohio’s Must Places to Eat, the second book in her Ohio travel series and the companion to Eating Your Way Across Ohio. She has also written Herbs for All Seasons and a World War II memoir entitled Allies Forever: The Life and Times of an American Prisoner of War. As a syndicated columnist for the Gannett and Thompson newspapers, she has penned hundreds of articles on travel, food, and gardening.