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.
jw Smith
After 30 years as a professor in the field of Communication Studies, Dr. Smith reminisces about some of his experiences and how his race and differently abled intersectionality have influenced documented encounters. As a black and totally blind individual, he muses about how this distinction has both colored and shed light on what might have been innocuous or unremarkable encounters otherwise. This narrative charts his journey from leaving for graduate school to his present position as a tenured professor at a Midwest institution of higher learning. The memoir is riveting because of its vulnerability, candid honesty, and fresh transparency, as well as its conversational tone and quality. It is simultaneously an easy read but one that can also cause reflection and soul-searching without much warning. While the challenges of race and differently-abled issues are documented (and sometimes painfully so), Dr. Smith ultimately concludes that for the most part, these unique foci resulted in more positive outcomes than negative ones. It seems that only in America, is this story possible and the ultimate success of this memoir is clearly due to a strong faith in God, consistent and contagious family support, and hard work and perseverance.
Rose Smith
Rose M. Smith’s work has appeared in The Examined Life, pluck!, Naugatuck River Review, Snapdragon, Minola Review, Dying Dahlia Review, Main Street Rag, The Pedestal Magazine, Pavement Saw, Passager, Boston Literary Magazine and other journals. She is author of four chapbooks Shooting the Strays (Pavement Saw, 2003), A Woman You Know (Pudding House, 2010), a Poets’ Greatest Hits chapbook (Kattywompus Press), and most recently Holes in My Teeth (Kattywompus Press, 2016). Her work appears in the anthologies Mourning Sickness (Omni Arts LLC, 2008) and 50/50: Poems and Translations by Womxn Over 50 (Quills Edge Press, 2018) and other anthologies. Her collection, Unearthing Ida, won the 2018 Lyrebird Prize from Glass Lyre Press. She is a Senior Editor with Pudding Magazine and has served several years as a state competition judge and often as coach to student champion for Ohio Arts Council’s Poetry Out Loud program. Rose is an IT requirements analyst by day and completed a fellowship with Cave Canem Foundation in 2015.
Jamie Lyn Smith
Jamie Lyn Smith is a writer, editor, and teacher. She earned her BA in English and Theatre from Kenyon College, her Masters in Education from Fordham University, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Ohio State. Jamie Lyn is the Fiction Editor at BreakBread Magazine and a Consulting Editor for the Kenyon Review. Her work has appeared in The Pinch, The Mississippi Review, The Kenyon Review, American Literary Review, Yemassee, Bayou, and other fine literary magazines. She is currently working on Hometown, a novel about millennial crises and the rise of white nationalism in the rural Midwest, for which she received a 2020 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Her short story collection, Township, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in January 2022.
A.V. Smith
A.V. Smith is an athlete turned writer. With a passion for storytelling, he paints with words that captivate readers. Smith writes on an emotional level to empower readers to engage in deeper conversations about their past, their relationships, and their connection with the Universe.
With his first book, Madison: God’s Fingerprint 1.618, he won the 2019 Author Academy Award for Best Romance. Book two in the Madison series: Madison: In the Presence of God, reached #1 Best Seller, and the third installment, Madison: Vengeance Is Mine also achieved #1 Best Seller ranking. Book four, Madison: Upon This Rock is set to release January of 2025.
Smith took a break from romance and focused his literary talent on crime and social issues that divide our society with OHIO 10 and OHIO 10 II. Both books garnered #1 Best Seller upon release.
Normal Chaos: Ledoma (Book 1) is his first Fantasy Fiction book. He strives to push the boundaries of creativity, realizing there is no box in writing fiction or our shared journey.
Through life and love, he has learned our steps are temporary, yet the journey intensely meaningful. This understanding led him to donate a kidney to his younger brother. As the father of three children, his desire is to see his children overcome the fear of success by being the best version of themselves. He strives to lead by example, at times falling short, but understanding human beings are still a work in progress. When he is not engaged in his passion, you can find him with a fishing pole in his hand, attending a local artist event or somewhere deep in the woods hiking and enjoying the gift of nature. Learn more about A.V. Smith and his work at avsmithbooks.com
Betsy Snyder
Author and illustrator Betsy Snyder has twenty years of experience creating for the children’s market. Her smile-inspiring art can be found on everything from social expressions products, board games, plush, decor, fabric, wallpaper, and of course—children’s books! Since making her publishing debut in 2007, Betsy has teamed with a diverse mix of publishers, earning recognition from groups including the Society of Illustrators, The New York Times, Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine, Indie Next List, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center and Please Touch Museum. Her newest titles, I Can Dream and I Can Explore (May 2018), join the earlier I Can Dance and I Can Play in an innovative board book series with Chronicle Books.
Betsy lives in Independence, Ohio, where she enjoys cozying up to doodle with her art-loving family of four and venturing out to schools and libraries to encourage kids (and even grown-ups) to share their stories and chase their dreams. Learn more about Betsy and her books at http://www.betsysnyder.com.
Lucy A. Snyder
Lucy A. Snyder is the author of 15 books and over 100 published short stories. Her most recent titles are the apocalyptic horror novel Sister, Maiden, Monster and the collection Halloween Season. She lives near Columbus, Ohio with a jungle of houseplants, a clowder of cats, and an insomnia of housemates. You can learn more about her at http://www.lucysnyder.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @LucyASnyder.
Linda Sohner
Linda Sohner is a retired speech therapist currently living in Greene County, Ohio. She shares her fascination with ancient worlds through engaging stories for children.
Jennifer Sommer
I am a writer of Children’s and Young Adult books. I received my MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, and am an active member of SCBWI. I am currently represented by Stephen Fraser of Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. Learn more at: https://jennifersommer.weebly.com/
Anna Soter
Anna Soter is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University, and Adjunct Professor at CCAD, and at Self-Design Graduate Institute (Washington State). Her academic specializations are applied linguistics, contrastive rhetoric, literary theory applications to young adult literature, and the role of language as a field of energy. She is founder of The Hospital Poets (USA and Australia), a regular feature in The Ohio State University’s Humanism in Medicine program. She is also faculty submissions editor of Ether Arts, the OSU College of Medicine’s Literary and Visual Annual Arts Magazine. Anna continues to serve as co-convener (with Fred Andrle and Charlene Fix) of The Hospital Poets. In 2014, she received the OSU Wexner Medical Center William Osler M.D. Award for her work and commitment to Medicine and the Arts since its 2009 inauguration, and the OSU Wexner Medical Center Medicine and the Arts Certificate of Recognition for exemplary contributions in bringing the arts into the lives of medical staff, patients and families.
Anna has been a frequent featured reader in a variety of Columbus and state poetry venues for many years. She has primarily published scholarly books and articles and individual poems. Breathing Spaces is her first poetry collection.
https://ehe.osu.edu/news/listing/emeritus-academy-recognizes-lifelong-scholars
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XjfBZh0AAAAJ&hl=en
Amy Spears
Amy Spears (she/her) graduated from Denison University with a degree in cinema and creative writing. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, where she is in her second decade as a skater with Ohio Roller Derby. She spent several years active in the leadership of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association and has given presentations, workshops and talks about the sport at Pecha Kecha Columbus, the Roller Derby World Summit, and Rollercon. Her digital essay (with Julie Driscoll) “Worlds Collide! facebook, family & George Costanza” was published in Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion, and her prose and poetry have appeared in Columbus Alive, Lynx Eye, and Wine X. A self-described “collector of hobbies,” she’ll try just about anything once.