Yocum, Robin

Born: 1955

Ohio Connection: Born

Steubenville

Robin Yocum got his first job in the newspaper business as a young child delivering for the Wheeling Intelligencer in the town of Brilliant, Ohio. Growing up the son of a steelworker, he wanted to be a fireman or the second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He went on to get a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University. For the years following college Yocum, found himself reporting for the Lancaster Eagle Gazette and the Martins Ferry Times Leader before he would relocate to Columbus. Yocum would go on to work for the Columbus Dispatch for eleven years, starting in 1980. He spent four years working the crime beat, and the rest of his years as a senior reporter on the investigative desk. While at the Dispatch, he won more than thirty local, state, and national awards. He first published the novel Insured for Murder with his Dispatch colleague Catherine Candinsky. He has since published many novels that take place in rural Ohio, such as Favorite Sons, A Welcome Murder, A Brilliant Death, and The Essay. In addition to his writing carreer, Yocum is also the president of Yocum Communications, a public relations and marketing firm. He currently resides in Westerville and has three children.

 

Awards:

Associated Press

Press Club of Ohio

2011 Book News Book of the Year for Mystery/Suspense

Choose to Read Ohio program for 2013-14

Featured book of the 2012 Ohioana Book Festival

Finalist for the 2017 Edgar Allen Poe Awards