Ohio at the National Book Festival!

On September 6, 2025, the Ohio Center for the Book will once again be participating in National Book Festival at the affiliate Centers for the Book’s Roadmap to Reading area in Hall D of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. Visit our table for information about Ohio’s literary heritage, our Great Reads from Great Places selections, and more.

You’ll also want to check out (IRL or online)…

Authors at the National Book Festival with an Ohio connection

All the appearances at the 2025 National Book Festival will be livestreamed on loc.gov. After the Festival, they will be available for viewing in the Library of Congress’ Event Videos collection.

JOHN GREEN attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and graduated in 2000 with a double major in English and religious studies. After graduating, Green also worked for about half a year as a student chaplain at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. This experience is cited as inspiration for his famous novel, The Fault in Our Stars. (Read an interview with Green in the Kenyon Alumni Magazine)

PETER KUPER moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was six years old and graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1976. He also attended Kent State University for a year after high school. In Cleveland, he and his childhood friend, Seth Tobocman, published their first fanzine, Phanzine, and the official magazine of the Cleveland Graphic Arts Society, G.A.S. Lite. In Cleveland, Kuper met Harvey Pekar, who introduced him to R. Crumb, both prominent figures in the comics world who influenced Kuper’s artistic style. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum holds some of Peter Kuper’s work, including a pencil drawing for “Spy vs. Spy.”

KIESE LAYMON attended Oberlin College. He was an English major there and graduated in 1998, later returning as a judge for the New Ohio Review nonfiction contest in 2019.

KATE MARVEL, climate scientist and science communicator, graduated from Upper Arlington High School in Ohio. Marvel has written for Scientific American, Nautilus magazine and the On Being Project. She now lives in New York with her family. Her book, “Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet,” explores various perspectives on climate change and is featured at the 2025 National Book Festival.

R.L. STINE was born was born in 1943 in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in the suburb of Bexley. He is the bestselling children’s author of “Goosebumps,” which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and has more than 400 million books in print in 32 languages. You can read an interview with Stine from the Columbus Dispatch online.

NNEDI OKORAFOR was born to Igbo Nigerian parents in Cincinnati, was raised near Chicago, and now resides in Arizona. She is a prolific author and has penned dozens of novels, novellas, graphic novels, and comic books. You can read a 2024 interview with her from Publishers Weekly online. Her newest novel, Death of the Author, is featured at the 2025 National Book Festival.

RANSOM RIGGS received his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College in Ohio, where he became friends with writer John Green (also featured at the National Book Festival, see above). His book, “Sunderworld, Vol. I: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry,” is featured at the 2025 National Book Festival.

MAGGIE SU is a writer whose debut novel was published in January 2025. She holds a doctorate in fiction from the University of Cincinnati, and her work has appeared in New England Review, Four Way Review, TriQuarterly Review, Puerto del Sol, Juked, Diagram and other publications. Su currently lives in Indiana with her partner, cat and turtle. Her debut novel, Blob: A Love Story, about a young woman who molds a sentient blob into her perfect partner, is featured at the 2025 National Book Festival.

SCOTT TUROW, worked with the Ohio Innocence Project – a legal organization based at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Additionally, when Turow was an assistant United States Attorney in Chicago, he co-authored an article on RICO forfeitures that appeared in the University of Cincinnati Law Review.