Author: Ohio Center for the Book

Schwarz, Ted

Born: 1945 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Ted Schwarz was born Theodore R. Schwarz in Cleveland, Ohio.  He is the son of Theodore R. and Ruth Dorothy.  Ted Schwarz attended Case Western Reserve University, 1964-66, 1971; New York Institute of Photography, 1965; and The University of the South School of Theology, 1992-1995. Ted Schwarz is a …

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Connie Schultz

Born:  1957 Ohio connection: Birth Ashtabula Connie Schultz was raised in Ashtabula by working-class parents and received her bachelors degree in journalism from Kent State University in 1979.  In addition to her biweekly column for the Cleveland Plain Dealer/Creators Syndicate, she has written two memoirs: Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths and … And His Lovely Wife: A …

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Jack Schaefer

Born: November 19, 1907Died: January 24, 1991 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Jack Warner Schaefer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1907. Growing up in a house of voracious readers, Schaefer read everything from the exotic “Tarzan” stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs to the thrilling western fiction of Zane Grey. In 1910, Schaefer’s family moved to Lakewood, Ohio. …

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Scalzi, John

Bradford Born: 1969 Ohio connection: Resident John Michael Scalzi II was born in Fairfield, California. He graduated high school (Webb School of California) in 1987 and earned an A.B. from the University of Chicago in 1991. During his 1989–1990 school year, Scalzi was the editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. After college, Scalzi took a job as the film critic for …

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Salinger, Michael

Born: 1962 Ohio connection: Birth Mentor Michael G. Salinger was born in 1962, near Cleveland. A poet, performer, and educator, he is one of the earliest participants in the National Poetry Slam, former board member of Poetry Slam Inc., and current director of the organization’s summer writing and performance conference. Salinger is an eight time captain …

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Julie Salamon

Born: 1953 Ohio connection: Birth Seaman Julie Salamon was born in Seaman, Ohio, daughter of Alexander (a physician) and Lilly (a businesswoman; maiden name, Rapaport). Her father had survived Dachau death camp though his first wife and baby girl were lost to the gas chambers.  After the war, he returned to Prague where he met Lilly, …

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Cynthia Rylant

Born: 1954 Ohio connection: Resident Rootstown It took Cynthia Rylant only one hour to write her first book, When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982), a collection of vignettes describing the years she spent with her grandparents in Appalachia. Born in Hopewell, Virginia, in 1954, Rylant spent her first four years in Illinois. When she was four, …

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