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
Shawnie Kelley
Shawnie Kelley has lived in Columbus since 1997 and calls Upper Arlington home since 2002. She studied Art History at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, The Ohio State University, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Shawnie is the author of the all three editions of the Insiders’ Guide® to Columbus, several books about Cape Cod, and has contributed food and travel-related articles to both national and international magazines, including Edible Columbus and Sophisticated Living. She owns Wanderlust Tours, a cultural and culinary travel company, and teaches cooking classes for The Mix at Columbus State. Some of her best times are just exploring the world, sniffing out regional food, writing about spas, afternoon tea and golf, and adventuring with her fun little family: Dan, Madalyn, and Gabe. She hopes the Insiders’ Guide will expose Columbus as the international capital city it is becoming!
Marlane Kennedy
Marlane Kennedy is the author of two middle grade novels published by HarperCollins: Me and the Pumpkin Queen and The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes. Both books were nominees to a variety of state award lists. She is also the author of the Disaster Strikes series published by Scholastic—adventures featuring ordinary kids in extraordinary situations that test their strength, smarts, and courage. Booklist praised the first release of the series: “Full of action and realistic friend dynamics…this holds strong appeal for both girls and boys and features a diverse cast of characters. A rare find in transitional chapter books.” A life-long Ohio resident, Marlane was born in Waverly, Ohio and now lives in Wooster, Ohio with her husband and daughter. Find her online at http://marlanekennedy.com.
Anne Vittur Kennedy
Anne Kennedy began her career in corporate illustration and quickly jumped to children’s books. Having illustrated for many years, she is now happily writing and illustrating her own titles. A life long love of animals and humor are evident in her work. She says her dog, Banjo, who often supervises in the studio, has incredible “dog logic” which inspired her to write Ragweed’s Farm Dog Handbook. Her time spent on farms riding horses has played a part in her stories too. Anne is the recipient of many awards, including Teacher’s Choice, Green Earth Book Award, American Library Notable Book, an Irma S. Black Honor Book, and she is honored too to represent Ohio with her Ohioana Choose To Read book, The Farmer’s Away! Baa! Neigh!
Jeff Knowles
Jeff Knowles was born in Cleveland in 1948 at the front edge of the Baby Boom generation. At age five, his family moved to Northfield—exactly half way between Cleveland and Akron and in the middle of the Cuyahoga River Valley that is at the heart of his book. Despite undergraduate and graduate degrees in history, he did not come to fully appreciate the historic and cultural significance of his home place until middle age. He retired in 2004 after a thirty-year research career in criminal justice, the last twenty-eight of which were served as Director of the Ohio Statistical Analysis Center in the Office of Criminal Justice Services. His written works have included two books, What of the Night? and Integrity with Two Eye, as well as articles for Ohio Magazine, Cincinnati Magazine, and several others.
Knowles and his wife of forty-six years, Lezlee, have three children: Kathi, Kimberly and Mark, and six grandchildren: Aaron, Andrew, Emma, Kate, Jack and Matthew. A diverse group of places have served as his homes, including Cleveland, Northfield, Carter County, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia and—for the past forty years, Columbus, Ohio.
Tracy Lawson
Tracy Lawson’s passion for storytelling led her first into the world of dance and educational theater, and enjoyed a career as a dance teacher, studio owner, and choreographer that has spanned nearly three decades. A mid-life career change has yielded six books–a four-volume series of thrillers for young adults, and two nonfiction history books based on the lives of her pioneer ancestors. Tracy’s two newest novels are in the pipeline for release in 2020 and 2021. While her body of work may seem varied, the common thread that connects all her books is her characters’ pursuit of individual liberty. Tracy, who is married with one grown daughter and two spoiled cats, splits her time between Dallas, Texas and Columbus, Ohio.
@TracySLawson on Twitter
Tracy Lawson, Author on Facebook
Vicki Leigh
Vicki Leigh grew up in a small suburb of Akron, Ohio, where she learned to read by the age of four and considered being sent to her room for punishment as an opportunity to dive into another book. By the sixth grade, Vicki penned her first full-length screenplay. If she couldn’t be a writer, Vicki would be a Hunter (think Dean and Sam Winchester) or a Jedi. Her favorite place on earth is Hogwarts (she refuses to believe it doesn’t exist), and her favorite dreams include solving cases
alongside Sherlock Holmes. She’s a previous acquisitions editor for Curiosity Quills Press and also writes as Tori Rigby. Visit her online at http://www.vleighwrites.com.
Julie Anne Lindsey
Julie Anne Lindsey is an award-winning and bestselling author of mystery and romantic suspense. She’s published more than fifty novels since her debut in 2013 and currently writes series as herself, as well as under multiple pen names, for Harlequin, Kensington, Sourcebooks and Crooked Lane Books. When Julie’s not creating new worlds or fostering the epic love of fictional characters, she can be found in Kent, Ohio, plotting murder with her shamelessly enabling friends. Today she hopes to make someone smile. One day she plans to change the world. Learn more about Julie at julieannelindsey.com
Kylie Logan
Kylie Logan is the author of the bestselling League of Literary Ladies mysteries. The series premiered with Mayhem at the Orient Express and book #4, And Then There Were Nuns, was released in March of 2015. The books follow the adventures of a court-ordered book club on South Bass Island. Kylie’s newest series is the Ethnic Eats mysteries, set in Hubbard, Ohio. The first book about a chef at a down-on-its-luck restaurant who decides to feature ethnic foods is Irish Stewed. Kylie also writes the popular Pepper Martin series as Casey Daniels.
Scott Longert
Scott Longert is a graduate of the Ohio State University and has his M.A. in American History from Cleveland State with an emphasis on the post-Civil Wars years to the Great Depression.
Scott is a retired Park Ranger from the James A. Garfield National Historic Site where he specialized in Civil War talks concerning General Garfield and major battles of the war.
Scott has been writing about Cleveland baseball history for over thirty years and has five books published to date, his latest Cy Young: An American Baseball Hero released in June 2020.
A sixth book, Victory on Two Fronts is due for an early winter 2022 release.
Scott has taught part-time at Cuyahoga Community College, offering courses in several aspects of Cleveland baseball history. He lectures regularly at local libraries and community groups. Scott was recently interviewed for the upcoming documentary, War on the Diamond, a study of the rivalry between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees.