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.
Cathy Seckman
Cathy Hester Seckman is a lifelong resident of East Liverpool, Ohio, and a graduate of East Liverpool City High School and West Liberty State College (now University). She is a writer, indexer, speaker, and dental hygienist.
Arcadia Publishing released her book, East Liverpool, an Images of America title. Seckman is also the author of Weirdo World, a young adult fantasy novel. She is an indie co-author of Bad Moon Rising, a murder mystery set between Woodstock and the Kent State shootings, and an anthology, H2O Mysteries. Her short fiction has been published in several magazines and she has written hundreds of magazine articles and thousands of newspaper articles.
As a back-of-the-book indexer, she has also written more than 130 indexes, mostly for textbooks, on a wide range of topics from dentistry to terrorism to literary criticism.
Steve Sefner
Steve Sefner is a former play-by-play announcer for Kent State Athletics. He has broadcasted well over 1,000 basketball & football games in his career including the 2001-2002 men’s basketball Golden Dream Season. Steve spent several years in the sports industry, most notably Division I Athletics, the NHL, AFL, and MLS. Steve has had the opportunity to work in a variety of capacities including broadcasting, corporate sponsorship, ticket sales, marketing, promotions, and management. He enjoys public speaking, a CTA (Certified Tourism Ambassador) and is on the Board of Directors for his local Chamber of Commerce. Steve is a native of Northeast, Ohio and an avid sports fan. Check out his new book here: The Golden Dream: The Story of the 2001-2002 Kent State Men’s Basketball Elite Eight Season
Marilyn Seguin
Marilyn Weymouth Seguin is the author of fifteen books, many of them Ohio-based historical fiction and nonfiction for young readers. She teaches in the Writing Program of the English Department at Kent State University. When she is not helping her students with their writing, she is busily crafting another story. Marilyn lives with her husband Rollie and little dog Jerzee in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and Gray, Maine.
David M. Selcer
David M. Selcer is a former employment relations attorney and author of the Buckeye Barrister mystery series consisting of five mysteries venued in Ohio. He is also the author of the award winning Lincoln’s Hat and the TEA Movement’s Anger and The Old Stories.
Kenneth Sewell
During the Cold War years, Kenneth R. Sewell served aboard the USS Parche, a fast attack submarine that was the Navy’s most decorated ship. Parche conducted a number of special operations, some of which were revealed in Blind Man’s Bluff, The Story of American Submarine Espionage. Since leaving the Navy, Mr. Sewell has remained connected to the US military and intelligence community.…
Read MoreDuring the Cold War years, Kenneth R. Sewell served aboard the USS Parche, a fast attack submarine that was the Navy’s most decorated ship. Parche conducted a number of special operations, some of which were revealed in Blind Man’s Bluff, The Story of American Submarine Espionage. Since leaving the Navy, Mr. Sewell has remained connected to the US military and intelligence community. He has held both Department of Defense and Department of Energy security clearances and has participated in a number of projects for the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency. He is the primary author of the New York Times bestseller Red Star Rogue, All Hands Down (Simon & Schuster), and co-author of Code Name Caesar (Berkley/Penguin). Sewell collaborated with director Todd Robinson to create the full length feature film Phantom, which is based on Red Star Rogue and stars Ed Harris, David Duchovny and William Fichtner. A Buckeye by birth and graduate of Urbana University, he currently resides in Gahanna, Ohio.
Bev Shaffer
Bev Shaffer is an author, food writer, and culinary instructor. Her weekly column “Ask Bev” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer food section and her weekly radio spot on Akron, Ohio’s WAKR’s “Morning Drive Time” feature her signature humor and her uncanny ability to create uncomplicated recipes and calm food and cooking phobias. She has developed more than eight thousand recipes on a wide variety of subjects, including seafood, sides and grains, and desserts.…
Read MoreBev Shaffer is an author, food writer, and culinary instructor. Her weekly column “Ask Bev” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer food section and her weekly radio spot on Akron, Ohio’s WAKR’s “Morning Drive Time” feature her signature humor and her uncanny ability to create uncomplicated recipes and calm food and cooking phobias. She has developed more than eight thousand recipes on a wide variety of subjects, including seafood, sides and grains, and desserts. She has also received many national and local commendations and more than one hundred cooking awards, including the Ohio Dietetic Association Outstanding Contribution Award. Born and raised in North Brunswick, New Jersey, Chef Shaffer resides in Seville, Ohio.
Margie Shaheed
Margie Shaheed is a community poet, writer and teaching artist. She is the author of three chapbooks, Mosaic, Onomonopoeia, and Playground. She is currently completing a non-fiction book, Tongue Shakers: Interviews and Narratives on Speaking Mother Tongue in a Multicultural Society.
Janet Shailer
From Janet: “I was born & raised in Grove City, Ohio, and graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1971 with a degree in Radio/TV/Film and a minor in journalism. Early in my career I worked as a broadcast engineer for two NBC-affiliated TV stations and Warner Cable’s Qube cable TV network. I was a contributing editor of Television Broadcast magazine and later editor of the Southwest Messenger newspaper in Columbus. I am the author of three non-fiction history books and one historical fiction/murder mystery that takes place in Steubenville, OH.”
Prince Shakur
Prince Shakur is a queer, Jamaican-American freelance journalist, cultural essayist, and grassroots organizer with a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio University. His words have been featured in Teen Vogue, Catapult, Level, Electric Lit, and more. In addition, Shakur is the proud writer in residence at Sangam House, Twelve Arts, The Studios of Key West, and La Maison Baldwin. Learn more: https://www.princeshakur.com/
Mike Shannon
Mike Shannon is the author of more than 20 baseball books and the editor and publisher of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine. He has written a monthly column for Reds Report for more than 20 years.