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.
Conlee Ricketts
Conlee Ricketts has been an educator for over 30 years with her BSEd in Secondary Mathematics Education from The Ohio State University, and her MEd in Administration/Teacher Leader from Wright State University. Conlee’s honesty and humor helps you examine fears and vulnerabilities in a safe lighthearted way. Her life has been about surviving awkward social situations and problem solving. She is an expert at finding options, organizing a plan, and quieting over-active mind chatter long enough to calm the chaos of an incredibly human and messy life. She lives in Bexley, Ohio with her daughter, father, and a myriad of pets and their associated dirt.
Debbie Rigaud
Debbie Rigaud is a New York Times bestselling co-author of the Hope series (with Alyssa Milano) and The Sister Switch (with Sarah Mlynowski). Her notable young adult novels A Girl’s Guide to Love & Magic and Simone Breaks All the Rules are colored with sights and sounds of metro NYC, where she was born and raised. Debbie now lives with her husband and children in Columbus, Ohio, where she records her impressions of Midwestern life onto new pages. You can visit her at DebbieRigaud.com or on Instagram @FroAndABow.
Mark Rigney
Mark Rigney’s novellas and novels, The Skates, Sleeping Bear, and Check-Out Time are available from Samhain Publishing, with Bonesy to follow in 2015. His short fiction appears in Witness, Ascent, Unlikely Story, and The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review, among fifty other venues. In non-fiction, Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets and a Classic American Musical (Gallaudet) remains happily in print and he is a regular contributor to Black Gate.
As a playwright, he has won multiple prizes and had work produced or developed in twenty-two U.S. states, off Broadway, Australia, and Canada. Published full-lengths include Ten Red Kings and Acts of God (both from Playscripts, Inc.) and Bears (IndieTheaterNow). His ten-minute plays appear in the Smith & Kraus series, The Best Ten-Minute Plays (2012, 2013, and 2014). When not writing, he has worked as a zookeeper, a sound recordist, a tech director, and as a retail trainer at Borders Books & Music. His website, which includes links to many of his (free!) online stories, is markrigney.net.
Tara Rigsbee
Tara Rigsbee is a mother of two beautiful girls and was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Tara hold a bachelor degree in Human Services and is a Certified Life Coach. Tara has recently started her own business called “Butterfly Bloom Dream Builder” and her goal is to run her business full time and continue to inspire others and help them build their dreams. After going through a life changing event and getting through her recovery she decided to go to Virginia Beach, VA to complete her book, and resided there for thirteen months. Tara is now living back home in Columbus, Ohio.
James Alan Riley
James Alan Riley is an American poet whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowships from the Kentucky Arts Council, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council. Riley received his Ph.D. from Ohio University. He is a Professor of English at the University of Pikeville in Pikeville, KY.
Sandra Rivers-Gill
A Native Ohioan, Sandra Rivers-Gill is a poet, teaching artist, and performer. Her poetry has garnered numerous awards, and has been featured in journals and anthologies. She is a member of the Ohio Poetry Association and has participated in events such as Lit Youngstown Festival, Poetry Out Loud, Spoken & Heard, and the Toledo Arts Commission. She is editor of Dopeless Hope Fiends, a limited-addition anthology of poems penned by women recovering from substance and alcohol abuse published by The Radio Room Press (2018). As We Cover Ourselves With Light is her debut chapbook published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions (2023).
Edward J. Roach
Edward J. Roach is the site historian and resource manager at Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in Ohio, where he manages the park’s library and museum collections and also assists partners in conserving and interpreting the artifacts and stories that they preserve. He has B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from Moravian College (Bethlehem, Pa.) and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, Pa.), respectively, and taught English with the Peace Corps in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, before gaining employment with the National Park Service in 2001.…
Read MoreEdward J. Roach is the site historian and resource manager at Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in Ohio, where he manages the park’s library and museum collections and also assists partners in conserving and interpreting the artifacts and stories that they preserve. He has B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from Moravian College (Bethlehem, Pa.) and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, Pa.), respectively, and taught English with the Peace Corps in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, before gaining employment with the National Park Service in 2001. He is an active member of the Organization of American Historians, the Society for the History of Technology, and the National Council on Public History. Roach is from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; he and his wife live in Centerville, Ohio.
Merry Robert
Robert W. Merry is the author of Where They Stand; A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk; Sands of Empire; and Taking on the World. A longtime Washington journalist, commentator, and publishing executive, he covered government and politics for The Wall Street Journal for a decade and spent twenty-two years as an executive at Congressional Quarterly Inc., including twelve years as CEO. This is his fifth book. Merry lives with his wife in Langley, WA, and Washington, DC.
Linda Robertson
Linda Robertson is an internationally published author. She won the OSU/Mansfield Florence B. Allen writing competition in 2006, earned a cum laude Associate of the Art’s Degree in English in 2008, and has published seven novels since 2009.
In addition to the Immanence series, she is the author of the Persephone Alcmedi series. She has also written, created, and produced a full musical score/CD for Jovienne.
She attends various writing conventions and book festivals, blogs, and gives workshops about the craft of writing. A mother of four boys, Linda is married and lives in Northeast Ohio.
Debra Robinson
Debra Robinson is an author, psychic and professional musician/songwriter. She speaks on the ancient art and science of palmistry, psychic abilities, and has thriving careers in music performance and publishing. Most recently a song from her catalogue was placed in the Matthew McConaughey film trailer, Killer Joe. Debra’s first book A Haunted Life: The True Ghost Story of a Reluctant Psychic, was released by Llewellyn Worldwide in 2013. Her latest book with Llewellyn, The Dead are Watching: More Ghost Stories from a Reluctant Psychic, is both heartwarming and terrifying. It includes stories of loved ones’ returns as well as true life hauntings. She recently signed a three-book deal with Permuted Press for her paranormal fiction. The Haunting of Black Tower Mansion will be released April 2015. Sarah’s Shadows will be re-released May 2015 and the sequel to Sarah’s Shadows June 2015. Debra lives in New Philadelphia Ohio, in a haunted house.