About the Program
In this fiction mentorship program, six professional Ohio authors will be paired with one emerging writer each across nine months to help them craft a piece of fiction in any genre. This experience will culminate in a Literary Celebration at Thurber House in July 2027 in Columbus, Ohio with a free public reading from mentors and mentees, along with a print publication of mentee stories.
​Mentors include award-winning authors working across genres, including literary, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance, thriller, and historical fiction. This program is free and open to emerging authors (of any age) who live in Central Ohio. Read the full eligibility guidelines on the mentee application page, which closes on August 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET. Applicants can read more about each of the six mentors below.
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Ohio is home to some of the nation’s finest fiction writers: Toni Morrison, Celeste Ng, Sherwood Anderson, Anthony Doerr, Sharon M. Draper, and James Thurber, to name a few. As an Ohio-born author myself, I want to champion our current and next generation of Ohio authors.​
Writers Rising is generously funded by the Greater Columbus Arts Council Artist Projects Grant.
Logo Design: Khytarri Sarfino
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Writers Rising Mentors
Genres: Speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, and horror). My work is sometimes described as “cozy creepy,” and I especially like to mix fantasy elements with real-world settings. I also publish poetry and nonfiction nature writing, and that work also influences my fiction.
Fiction Audience: Adult (but 13-year-old me would probably like my stuff too)
You should work with me if . . . you like to create strange, surprising stories with real emotional resonance. I seem to be especially drawn to stories that are a little hard to categorize. I think I could be especially useful if your eventual goal is traditional publishing, although I’ve also had some success with indie and self-publishing. Bonus points if you know my work or we share some favorite authors (check “books I like” below). It’s much more useful to have a mentor who shares your tastes in fiction and understands your goals.
Why I Write: When it’s going well, the answer is, “because I’ve been swept away by books I love and I’m thrilled by the idea of creating similar magic for others.” When it’s hard or frustrating, the answer is, “because I can’t seem to stop.”
Feedback Style: I’m flexible. I’ve worked as both a peer tutor and college English instructor. I’ve also worked with professional editors at major publishers for quite a few years now. My goal would be to chat with you and find a feedback style that works for both of us.
10 Books I Like:
1. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
2. The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
3. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
4. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
6. The Dresden Files (series) by Jim Butcher
7. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
8. The Shining by Stephen King
9. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
10. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Website: jarodkanderson.com​​
Short Bio: I’m a writer and poet living in Delaware, Ohio. My contemporary fantasy novel Strange Animals was released by Ballantine Books in 2026 and Publishers Weekly called it "a wholly captivating tale of magic and nature." My memoir Something in the Woods Loves You was a finalist for the 2025 Ohio Book Award and a starred Kirkus review praised it as "a brilliantly poignant exploration of nature, masculinity, and the struggles of depression."
My short fiction and poetry have appeared in diverse places such as Asimov's, The Sun Magazine, Literary Hub, musical adaptations performed at Carnegie Hall, and strangely enough on Patagonia brand clothing. I’ve been a featured guest, workshop teacher, and speaker for organizations including Georgetown University's Earth Commons program and The Henry David Thoreau Foundation. I have an MA in Literature and created the episodic fiction podcast The CryptoNaturalist. These days I’m a full-time writer.
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Jarod K. Anderson
Photo by Rikki Austin
Photo by Caroline Chidester
Short Bio: I’m a fiction writer, poet, and editor from Westerville, Ohio. After getting my degree in English and psychology from Ohio State, I spent a decade as a freelance developmental editor, working with authors on their novels and giving writing advice on my YouTube channel, Quotidian Writer. My short fiction, poetry, and essays have been published in numerous literary magazines, and my debut poetry collection, The Ship and the Storm, was released last fall. This year, I received the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for my fiction, and I’m perpetually working on a novel. I outlined and edited The Savannah River Series, an urban fantasy trilogy drafted by my friend Hero Bowen as part of our local writing co-op, Story Garden Publishing.
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For my day job, I’m the Arts Marketing & Online Strategy Manager for Urban Arts Space in downtown Columbus; I also teach writing workshops at Thurber House. You’ll often find me around town hosting book clubs at Kitty Bubble Cat Café, playing pickleball, or ordering every sweet treat at a local bakery.
Diane Callahan
Genres: Speculative fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, horror) with a literary bent; contemporary fiction; romance; humor; hybrid works (combining fiction with elements of nonfiction or poetry); LGBTQIA+; short stories and flash fiction
Fiction Audience: Adult fiction, young adult, middle grade—really any audience
You should work with me if . . . you love geeking out about the craft of fiction. I value deep conversations and getting to the heart of what really matters to you in your story. If you want to enhance your prose, bring out your narrative voice, and deepen your characterization, I’m your gal. I’m particularly interested in unconventional narrative structures or perspectives (e.g., second person, frame narratives, meta narratives, unlikable characters). In addition, I’m happy to give lessons on grammar and style. I am unlikely to choose a mentee I already know (looking at you, gallery interns!).
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Why I Write: To better understand myself and others. To find joy in the subconscious workings of the imagination. To connect with humankind through words and stories.
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Feedback Style: I provide an everything bagel—structural feedback, character arcs, prose punch-ups, grammatical corrections. Expect a lot of comments from me with both heaps of praise and areas for improvement.
10 Books I Like:
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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
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Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
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Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
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The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
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The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
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A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
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Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
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Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
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Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Website: quotidianwriter.com​​​​​
Short Bio: I write gritty YA across different genres. I’m known for tackling difficult topics and social issues like addiction, sexual assault, and mental health struggles. I go in deep, write gritty, and know when it’s time to pull back and lighten it up.
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Genres: Contemporary, mystery, historical, fantasy, psychological thriller, dystopian and survival
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Fiction Audience: Young Adult / Teen
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You should work with me if . . . you want to push yourself to improve and are interested in expanding the larger elements of your work. For the most part I am not drawn to entirely plot-driven novels. As a reader, I don’t care what happens to your characters (plot) unless I care about them (character building). If you’d like to work with me you also must not be deeply invested in “craft.” I don’t follow any structure or traditional guidelines. I do not plot or plan my books. If you’re looking for exercises to help build particular individual skills, I may not be a good fit for you. I interact directly with what you have written; you will learn by doing, not by abstract concepts.
Mindy McGinnis
​​Why I Write: The honest truth is that this is how I pay the bills; I write so I can have a house, food, clothes, and a car. But I do love what I do, and the thrill of a new project or a seed settling in and finally growing roots will never get old.
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Feedback Style: I will let you know what you’re doing that is working well and what your strengths are, but the goal here is for you to grow and improve. That means I’m going to find your weaknesses and push you to step up and address them. I am straightforward and do not sugarcoat my feedback, so be prepared for honest feedback, but also know I’m not going to be mean or unkind.
10 Books I Like:
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In the Woods by Tana French
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The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
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My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen
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Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
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Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
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The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
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The Frontiersman by Allan W. Eckert
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My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
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The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
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Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
Website: mindymcginnis.com​​​​​
Short Bio: Born and raised in Brooooooooklyn, New York, my first story was a fanfiction of Duke Nukem 64, a video game I should not have been playing in the second grade. After that, I did most of my writing on the trains, headed towards Barnes and Noble or art supply stores or anyplace that wasn’t home, using sketchpads to plot stories and comics. Superheroes and anime influenced my early work, but as I age, I’m trying to reconnect with my Hispanic roots as well. I live in Columbus now, where I dream about subway tunnels, brownstones, and the Atlantic Ocean every night.
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Works include “Saudade,” published in Issue 8 of FIYAH Literary Magazine, and “The Zoo,” featured in the forthcoming Forged in FIYAH anthology from Tordotcom. For my career, I work at Columbus State Community College as a full-time Communication instructor. I’m also a very tired dad.
Nelson Rolon
Photo by Nelson's Wife
Genres: Science fiction in urban settings with grounded-yet-amiable characters; less Star Wars and more Cowboy Bebop
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Fiction Audience: Adult fiction, but often through the lens of infantile absurdity
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You should work with me if . . . you don’t mind getting a lot of content on the page, then hating it, then reworking it as you remember that everyone’s first draft is bad and you need to beat that story like a steel billet in a blacksmith’s forge until it becomes the pen that’s supposedly mightier than the sword.
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Why I Write: I write for myself, and writing helps me think. I think I’ve only ever had one story inside me—a tale about family, estrangement, homecoming, faith—and everything I’ve ever written is just another iteration of that tale.
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Feedback Style: This might be strange to hear, but I feel we should spend a lot of time thinking about what we want to say and then embrace the fact audiences are going to bring their own interpretations anyway. As a mentor, I’ll help you accept that paradox.​ But if you’re looking for a serious answer, I like developmental edits.
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10 Books (and Manga) I Like:
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The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
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Don Quixote by Cervantes
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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano
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Planetes by Makoto Yukimura
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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End by Kanehito Yamada
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A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
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Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
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Claymore by Norihiro Yagi
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Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro
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Website: My social media game is lowkey whack bruh, no cap, but I’m on IG at @oldmannelson. I do have an anime blog at animeguardians.com if you’re into that. (It also needs some updates.)​​​​​
Short Bio: I’m a fiction and nonfiction writer and poet. I have a master’s degree in journalism (Indiana University Bloomington) and an MFA in creative writing (Goddard College). I’m the author of sixteen books and over 100 published short stories. My horror fiction has won five Bram Stoker Awards and has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award. My first three novels were urban fantasies (the Jessie Shimmer trilogy from Del Rey), and dozens of my science fiction stories have appeared in anthologies and magazines. My cosmic horror novel Sister, Maiden, Monster (Tor Nightfire) is equally a science fiction narrative.
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I taught in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program for a decade. My nonfiction has appeared in Writer’s Digest, SFWA Bulletin, Horror World, Nightmare Magazine, and Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market.
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I have a BS in biology, and I keep a variety of reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, and fish. And cats.​​
Lucy A. Snyder
Photo by Amelia Moss
Genres: Any flavor of science fiction, horror or fantasy. I particularly love cosmic and gothic horror, but I also love mythic stories and immersive SF grounded in real science. Historical, contemporary, or futuristic. I enjoy reading mysteries and have written some short mysteries. I write flash fiction, short stories, novellas, and novels and am happy to work with any of those. Interstitial/hybrid works that blur genre lines are welcome. LGTBQIA+. I’m happy to look at stories with romantic plots, but I am not familiar enough with the conventions of romance as a genre to work with a narrative intended as a straightforward category romance. My own books generally have a lot of adult content, and so I do not shy away from work with adult themes or work that portrays self-harm or emotional trauma. (I’d rather not work with narratives that involve significant on-page harm to animals, though.)
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Fiction Audience: Adult fiction. I enjoy Young Adult, but it’s a little outside my lane.
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You should work with me if . . . you’re writing something speculative or cross-genre, and you’re interested in traditional publishing. Writers who plan to self-publish are welcome, but I have a lot of experience navigating the murky, shark-infested waters of tradpub and I’m happy to share it. If you’ve been writing speculative fiction and have started submitting to markets and feel like you’ve been this close to landing a sale but just can’t quite get there, I will certainly have some actionable ideas. I focus on story, pacing, prose style, characterization, world building, and dialog. For instance, one aspect of world building that I pay particular attention to is grounding the reader in solid, believable details to sell them on the more bizarre or fantastic elements of a narrative.
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I look at stories as machines that need specific parts and systems to function properly, and I’ll help you pop the hood on your own fiction so you’ll learn to repair your own work as you continue on your journey as a writer.
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Why I Write: I write because I must. I’ll get an idea in my head, and I’ve got to get it down on paper. I get chronic nightmares, and the awful things have plots. And if I write them out, sometimes I get them out of my head for good. I submit my writing to publishers because I need to get paid, and because I love books. Receiving a box of author copies in the mail is one of my favorite things.
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Feedback Style: I focus on providing specific, actionable feedback. I know how frustrating it is to have someone flag something in a story as a problem but not receive any suggestions on how to fix it. My feedback is a conversation opener: we will absolutely talk about your concerns, and in those discussions, we’ll figure out where you want your story to go and what you want it to be.
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10 Books I Like:
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Strange Animals by Jarod Anderson
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The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
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Money Shot by Christa Faust
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The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
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The Winter Folk by Jen Julian
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The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan
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The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
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Redshirts by John Scalzi
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Speaking to Skull Kings by Emily B. Cataneo
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Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Website: lucysnyder.com​​​​
Short Bio: I’m Thao, an author of literary fiction and a creative writing instructor. I received my MFA from The Ohio State University and my MA from The University of Chicago. My debut novel, Banyan Moon, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and a Read with Jenna selection. My forthcoming novel, The Seekers of Deer Creek, has been listed among the most anticipated books of the season by Harper’s Bazaar, Electric Lit, and others, earning a starred review from Booklist. My essays have been published in The Los Angeles Review of Books, WIRED, Elle, Southern Living, and many other publications. I write character-driven work about complex family dynamics, buried secrets, and places that hold the weight of legacy. Much of my work contains an element of mystery or a strong mood that carries the emotionality of the book. As an instructor, I’ve worked with all levels and ages of creative writers. I live in Central Ohio with my family and two pouncy cats. Can’t wait to work with one of you soon!
Thao Thai
Photo by Erika Venci
Genres: Literary fiction, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, upmarket fiction
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Fiction Audience: Adult fiction
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You should work with me if . . . you are a dedicated writer of character-driven fiction with an emphasis on craft and language. The sentences on the page matter to you, along with setting, interiority, dialogue, and all manner of writing decisions. You're also constantly thinking about plot structure and high-level stakes. You understand the value of feedback and rigorous revision. You challenge yourself to engage with ambitious themes and complex characters. You read avidly and are excited to discuss craft in terms of real-world, published examples.
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Why I Write: I think I write for many of the reasons we all do! I write to understand the world around me. Because stories are always dancing in my imagination. Because characters sometimes feel more real to me than people around me. Because writing is, despite all the hard work, the most transformative form of play.
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Feedback Style: I like to understand what your goals are for your piece, then initiate clear yet encouraging discussions about what’s working well and what could be pushed farther. I’m not generally a prescriptive reader, but I can be, if more direct advice is requested. I usually mark up pages with queries and positive feedback, then offer a concise one-page letter that we can discuss!
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10 Books I Like:
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Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
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My Friends by Fredrik Backman
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James by Percival Everett
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The Names by Florence Knapp
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
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Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
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Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
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The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
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Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Website: thaowrites.com​​​​​