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.
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.
Kelly Sollinger
As a child, Kelly would spend hours cloud-watching in the fields or staring at the fish in the family pond. Back then, she drew and painted and wrote poetry, but, as many do, went on to something “safe” and “acceptable:” a career programming computers. As an adult, she began exploring the urges to paint and create, eventually leaving the safe zone to establish her art and writing practices. She continues to evolve as a creative on a daily basis and often expresses that transformation through poetry. Kelly has a BA in Computer Information Systems, an MA in Theology, and is currently pursuing training as a spiritual director. Her programming career began at NASA and spanned almost 30 years. She briefly worked in church ministry before setting out to establish Dancing Owl Studio. Nowadays she paints, writes, and creates to her heart’s content. DancingOwlStudio.com
Allegra Solomon
Allegra Solomon is a fiction writer who was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. She got her MFA from the University of Kentucky and her B.A. in Creative Writing from Ohio University. Her debut short story collection won the Kimbilio National Fiction prize and was a finalist for the Iron Horse Literary Review/TTU First Book Prize. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and has appeared in The Georgia Review, TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, New Ohio Review, Lolwe, and more. Her debut short story collection There’s Nothing Left For You Here is forthcoming in 2025 with Four Way Books. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky.
Jennifer Sommer
As a children’s librarian for twenty years, Jennifer Sommer’s annual Halloween Mad Scientist’s Lab was always her favorite program for the ghouls and gals. Jennifer’s culinary witch skills improved each year as new, scary, and surprisingly tasty additions were added to her Witchy Kitchen Cookbook. Every Creature Eats includes just a few of the creepy edible treats. 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.
Emily Spencer
Emily Spencer is the author of East Walnut Hills, winner of the Zone 3 Press Book Award. Her poetry has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. She graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Spencer is an assistant professor at Miami University.
Andrew Speno
Andrew Speno is a teacher and the author of “The Great American Foot Race,” as well as this year’s “The Many Lives of Eddie Rickenbacker.” He enjoys cooking, attending live music and theater performances, and playing Go. He lives with his family in Cincinnati.
Jeffrey F. Spieles
Jeffrey Spieles is an elementary schoolteacher in Englewood, Ohio. A nominee for the 2011 Ohio Teacher of the Year award, drama and storytelling have been major influences on his teaching style.
Tricia Springstubb
Tricia Springstubb is the award-winning author of fiction for readers of all ages- picture books, chapter books, middle grade and early young adult novels. Her newest book, How To Tell A True Story, is a suspenseful story about the slippery nature of truth, especially in the light of social media. She lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and is a frequent speaker at schools, libraries and conferences. Visit her online at triciaspringstubb.com