Category: Fiction

Alice Cary

Born: April 26, 1820Died: February 12, 1871 Ohio connection: Birth Mount Healthy Alice Cary was born in 1820 in Mount Healthy, Ohio, on a homestead near Cincinnati. The daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Jessup Cary, she was the fourth of eleven children and a sister of  author/poet Phoebe Cary. Alice, who was educated at home, developed a …

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Buckley, Michael

Born: 1969 Ohio connection: Birth Akron Michael Buckley is the New York Times bestselling author of The Sisters Grimm series, The N.E.R.D.S series, Kel Gilligan’s Daredevil Stunt Show, and the Undertow trilogy. Before becoming a best-selling author of children’s books, Buckley worked as a stand-up comic, singer in a punk rock band, advertising copy writer, and …

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Louis Bromfield

Born: December 27, 1896Died: March 18, 1956 Ohio connection: Birth Mansfield Louis Bromfield (birth name Lewis Brumfield), the son of Annette Maria Coulter Brumfield and Charles Brumfield, was a Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist and a screenwriter, essayist, and conservationist. Bromfield, the author of thirty-three books of fiction and nonfiction may best be remembered for his early advocacy of land …

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White, Edmund

Born: 1940 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Born in Cincinnati, son of Edmund Valentine II (an engineer) and Delilah Teddlie (a psychologist). Edmund Valentine III White has been regarded as the unofficial spokesman of the social, cultural, and political aspirations of the gay community. A novelist at age five, White has since authored several critically acclaimed fiction …

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Jan Wahl

Born: April 1, 1931Died: January 29, 2019 Ohio connection: Birth Columbus Jan Boyer Wahl, son of Russell Rothenberger and Nina Marie (Boyer) Wahl, was born in 1931 in Columbus, Ohio. He began writing while living with his grandparents in northwest Ohio during the Depression. His first effort was an attempt to rewrite “Jack and the Beanstalk,” …

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Umrigar, Thrity

Born: 1961 Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland “Bracingly honest…a perceptive and often piercing writer” is how The New York Times describes Thrity Umrigar, an Indian émigré who now calls Ohio home. Born in Bombay, Thrity left India for Ohio at the age of 21 in part because she felt she “would never be totally independent and would never discover …

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