BORN: 1987 OHIO CONNECTION: Resident Columbus In 1976, Ruth Awad’s father fled Abou Samra, Tripoli, Lebanon, to seek asylum in England during the Lebanese Civil War. After immigrating to the United States in the 1980s, he attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where he met Awad’s mother. Awad’s mother, a nurse, painted as a hobby. …
Read More Ruth AwadBorn: October 17, 1947Died: April 29, 2019 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Lee Kittredge Abbott, writer and educator, was a professor of English for more than three decades, teaching at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio for twelve years before transferring to Ohio State University (OSU) in 1989 where he taught until his retirement in 2012. …
Read More Lee K. AbbottBorn: 1944 Ohio connection: Birth Gallipolis Born in Gallipolis and raised across the river in Wheeling, West Virginia, author, designer and illustrator Jan Adkins describes himself as “an explainer, a storyteller with words and images, an advocate for young minds, a resource for images, and a dinosaur holdout for simplicity and grace in illustration, design …
Read More Jan AdkinsBorn: November 21, 1925Died: December 4, 2010 Ohio connection: Former Resident Columbus Robert Wilburn Canzoneri was born in San Marcos, Texas, the son of Joe and Mabel (Barnett) Canzoneri. He received a B.A. degree from Mississippi College in 1948, an M.A. from the University of Mississippi in 1951, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1965. He married Candyce Barnes. …
Read More Robert Wilburn CanzoneriBorn: November 25, 1899Died: April 25, 1982 Ohio connection: Birth Springfield Although an author of Westerns and a successful screenwriter, William Riley Burnett is best known as the originator of the gangster novel. The underworld icons of sleek cars, flashy clothes, bootleg liquor, and tommy guns find their origins in Burnett’s first novel, Little Caesar (1929). The …
Read More William Riley BurnettBorn: October 23, 1918Died: July 14, 2011 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Author, writer, photographer, and illustrator James P. Barry was born in Alton, Illinois. At the age of eight, he took his first ride on a Great Lakes freighter and, soon after, learned to sail a Mackinaw boat. He graduated from University High School in Normal, Illinois, …
Read More James P. BarryBorn: 1947 Ohio connection: Birth Columbus Katherine Ayres was born in Columbus to Ray and Betty Kent. Ayres has been a lover of books since early childhood, when she began inventing stories before she could write them. Ayres completed her undergraduate studies at the College of Wooster and earned an M.A. from Tufts University. Her childhood home state …
Read More Katherine AyresBorn: October 25, 1972 Died: February 15, 2019 Ohio Connection: Resident Columbus Born Elizabeth Atwood on October 25, 1972, Ellis Avery was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She attended the Columbus School for Girls until the age of eleven, when her family moved to Princeton, New Jersey. She legally changed her name to Ellis Avery when …
Read More Ellis AveryBorn: 1955 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus The only child of Roy Martin (a farmer and storyteller) and Beulah Read Martin (teacher), Lee Martin grew up on a farm in Lukin Township, Illinois (Lawrence County). When Lee was only a year old, his father lost both of his hands in a farming accident but continued farming with prosthetic …
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