Published Authors A and B
Below is a listing of all the Northeast Florida published authors we can find or have been told about with the last names beginning with the letters A and B. If you are a published northeast Florida author and your name isn’t listed please use our Contact Us form and let us know. We would be happy to add you.
Mark Ari (Fiction)
Jacksonville, FL
Duval County
Website: https://arifiles.com/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/mark.ari
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.ari/
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/markari.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mark.ari/
Substack: https://markari.substack.com/
Mark Ari is a writer, musician, and painter whose debut novel earned praise from the New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, the Miami Herald, and the Jerusalem Post. A longtime force in Jacksonville’s literary community, he taught creative writing at the University of North Florida and founded the audio poetry project EAT Poems, which published the work of Florida poets for over a decade. His work blends Jewish mysticism, Yiddish folklore, and magic realism into fiction that feels both deeply rooted and wholly original.
The Shoemaker’s Tale – 1993 – updated in 2018
Kathryn J. Bain (Mystery/Suspense/NonFiction/Children and Teen Fiction)
Jacksonville, FL
Duval County
Website: https://kathrynjbain.com/
Amazon Author Profile: https://amzn.to/43whBFO
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kathrynjbain
Goodreads: Kathryn J. Bain (Author of Betrayal’s Whisper)
Kathryn J. Bain is a number one bestselling author of mystery, suspense, and Christian fiction who has lived in Jacksonville for over 26 years, where she also works as a Florida Certified Registered Paralegal. Her fiction draws on her legal background, weaving procedural detail into fast-paced suspense across multiple series. She remains one of North Florida’s most prolific and actively publishing authors, with new titles released as recently as 2025.
KT Morgan Series
The Visitor – 2014
Small Town Terror – 2015
Reunion – 2016
Run Away – 2020
The Game – 2020
Sucker Punched – 2021
Lincolnville Mysteries
Breathless – 2011
Catch Your Breath – 2012
One Last Breath – 2014
Take Her Breath Away – 2016
Save Your Last Breath for Me – Jan 2023
The Black Bayou Series
Chasing a Dead Man – Apr 2021
The Caretaker’s Betrayal – Dec 2022
Stand Alone Fiction
The Chain You Forge – Nov 2017
Fade to the Edge – Nov 2019
Betrayals Whisper – Oct 2024
Veiled Traces – Jan 2025
Echoes of a Lie – Sept 2025
Children and Teen Fiction
Glen Valley Academy (K.J. Bain)
Zoe and the Bumbling Bee – Aug 2023
Jeremy and the Sparrow’s Eggs – Aug 2023
Teen Fiction
Seven Sisters Road – Aug 2020
Hope Harbor Series
Uprooted – April 2026
Non-Fiction
Holding the Hand of a King – 2017
30 in 30: 30 Blessings in 30 Days – 2018
Taking God Personally: 60-Day Devotional – 2020
Mary Kelley. Baron (Poetry/Non-Fiction)
St. Augustine, FL
St. Johns County
Professional Website: https://www.unf.edu/bio/N00002757/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profmaryb
Mary K. Baron is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of North Florida, where she taught from 1987 until her retirement. Before coming to Jacksonville, she taught at Tufts University in Massachusetts, Hartwick College in New York, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, bringing a broad academic career to the First Coast. A graduate of Brandeis University, the University of Michigan where she won the prestigious Major Hopwood Award in Poetry, and the University of Illinois at Urbana where she earned her PhD, she is one of northeast Florida’s most credentialed literary figures. She founded JAXWRITE, the local site of the National Writing Project, which ran from 1991 to 2002, and received an NEA grant to bring arts programming into Florida prisons, a project she has continued as a volunteer long after the grant ended. Now living in St. Augustine, she remains active in her community and on social media at 81 years old.
Letters for the New England Dead – 1974 (David R. Godine, Boston) – Out of Print
Wheat Among Bones – 1980 (Sheep Meadow Press, New York) – Out of Print
Mary Baron: New and Selected Poems – 2010 (Sheep Meadow Press, New York) – Out of Print
Poems in journals: multiple Articles on teaching, poetry, and prosody: multiple
Susie H. Baxter (Non-Fiction/Memoirs)
Gainesville, FL
Alachua County
Website: https://susiehbaxter.com/
Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3PlloCL/
Susie H. Baxter is a Gainesville-based memoirist and writing instructor whose work captures rural Florida life with warmth and precision. Her memoir Pumping Sunshine draws on her childhood in a Florida farmhouse without electricity or running water, earning strong reviews for its vivid sense of place and time. She also teaches others to write their own memoirs, bringing the same storytelling clarity to her instructional work.
C.G. and Ethel: A Family History – 2008
Pumping Sunshine: A Memoir of My Rural Childhood – 2017
Write Your Memoir: One Story at a Time – 2017
I, Susanette – 2021
Off We Went: In a 56 Chevy – 2024
Contributor and Editor: Bacopa Literary Review, Writers Alliance of Gainesville
Volume 10 – November 2019
Volume 9 – August 2018
Volume 8 – September 2017
Volume 7 – October 2016
C.S. Bennett (Non-Fiction, Romance, Mystery)
Palatka, FL
Putnam County
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CSBennettFromPhilly
Amazon Author Profile: https://amzn.to/3PBlVR4
C.S. Bennett is a Palatka-based author who writes across multiple genres, from American political history and constitutional nonfiction to romance and mystery fiction. His nonfiction work examines the founding era and the ongoing tension between liberty and government power. His more recent fiction, including The Allure of Roses and The Essence of Cinnamon, shows a writer who refuses to be confined to a single lane.
Beyond the Founding Fathers’ Vision – 2012
The Will of America: American Spartans – 2012
The Will of America: The Fight for Liberty – 2012
Court Ordered Custody – 2013
By George the Radicals are Back – 2014
America’s Original Radical – 2014
The Retribution for the Burkes – 2021
The Allure of Roses – 2022
The Essence of Cinnamon – 2023
The Model, The Author, His Wife, The Artist & The Producer – Jan 2026
Dwight Bennett, pen name Sam Berretti (Mystery/Suspense/Romance)
Gainesville, FL
Alachua County
Website: https://www.samberretti.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamBerretti/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwight-bennett-91707111
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4fFj5F2
Dwight Bennett writes mystery, suspense, and romance under the pen name Sam Berretti and is based in Gainesville. His Seekers Mystery Series spans nearly a decade of publication, and his most recent title, Seeing in Words: Prose Poetry Life, published in 2024, shows a writer expanding into new territory.
Seekers Mystery Series
Double Mayhem – 2012
Good Girl Gone – 2015
Blood Revenge – 2020
O’Brien’s Law Mystery Series
The Black Rose – 2014
Guided Poetry Journal & Sketchbook: Style Samples and Prompts for Inspiration – Feb 2022
Seeing in Words: Prose Poetry Life – 2024
Dr. John Bennett (Christian/Fiction/Sci-Fi/Inspirational)
Old Town, FL
Dixie County
Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/4a58tf2
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/john.bennett.5682
Dr. John Bennett of Old Town writes at the intersection of Christian faith, science fiction, and inspirational nonfiction. His novels explore end-times themes and spiritual journeys through imaginative, spiritually grounded storytelling. Old Town, in Dixie County, is one of the smaller communities in our coverage area, and Dr. Bennett is a notable representative of authors working far from Florida’s larger literary centers.
The Narrow Way – 2012
The Bridge to Eternity – 2016
Spirit People, Humanals, and Other Earthly Beings – 2017
The Ancient Israeli Tribe of Dan and the Sea Peoples – 2018
The Portal – 2018
The Little Red Book on Spiritual Matters – 2019
Steve Berry (Thriller/Suspense)
St. Augustine, FL
St. Johns County
Website: http://steveberry.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SteveBerryWriter
Amazon: https://amzn.to/49eGrO4
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@steveberry480
Steve Berry is one of North Florida’s most celebrated authors and one of the biggest names in historical thriller fiction worldwide. A former trial attorney and elected official who practiced law for 30 years in St. Augustine, he turned to full-time writing in 2008 and has not slowed down since. Over 25 million copies of his novels have been sold in 52 countries, translated into more than 40 languages, and his Cotton Malone series alone now spans 20 books. He is a co-founder of International Thriller Writers and an advocate for historic preservation through his History Matters foundation.
Cotton Malone Series
The Templar Legacy – 2006
The Alexandria Link – 2007
The Venetian Betrayal – 2007
The Charlemagne Pursuit – 2008
The Emperor’s Tomb – 2010
The Jefferson Key – 2011
The King’s Deception – 2013
The Lincoln Myth – 2014
The Patriot Threat – 2015
The 14th Colony – 2016
The Lost Order – 2017
The Bishop’s Pawn – 2018
The Malta Exchange – 2019
The Warsaw Protocol – 2020
The Kaiser’s Web – 2021
The Last Kingdom – 2023
The Atlas Maneuver – 2024
The Medici Return – 2025
The Devil’s Bible – 2026
Stand Alone Novels
The Amber Room – 2003
The Romanov Prophecy – 2004
The Third Secret – 2005
The Columbus Affair – 2012
The Omega Factor – 2022
The List – 2025
Luke Daniels Series (Co-Authored with Grant Blackwood)
The 9th Man – 2023
Red Star Falling – 2024
Robert M. Blade (Biography)
Jacksonville, FL
Duval County
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-blade-7a3a759/
Author Profile: https://guides.fscj.edu/facultyauthors/b
Robert Blade spent nearly 20 years as a journalist, including 14 years as a reporter, editor, and columnist at the Florida Times-Union, arriving in Jacksonville on the day President Nixon resigned in 1974. He later earned a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of Florida and joined the faculty at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, now Florida State College at Jacksonville, where he taught journalism and advised the student newspaper The Campus Voice. His biography of George McLean, the unconventional Mississippi newspaper publisher, was published in the prestigious Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography series. Blade’s personal connection to his subject, being married to McLean’s daughter, gives the book an intimacy that purely academic biography rarely achieves.
Tupelo Man: The Life and Times of George McLean, a Most Peculiar Newspaper Publisher – 2012
Nancy Blanton (Historical Fiction/Children’s)
Fernandina Beach, FL
Nassau County
Website: http://www.nancyblanton.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyBlanton.author
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blantonn17c/
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/nblanton.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyblanton/
Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/4tPZPYX
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nancyblanton1313
Nancy Blanton is an award-winning historical novelist based in Fernandina Beach whose richly researched fiction brings 17th century Ireland to life for modern readers. A Florida native with deep Irish roots, she is a co-founder of Amelia Indie Authors and a past board member of the Amelia Island Book Festival. Her most recent novel, The Noblest Share of Earth, launched in November 2024 and was followed by appearances at the Sunshine State Book Festival and Amelia Island Book Festival in early 2025.
Heaven on the Half Shell – 2003 (Co-Author)
The Curious Adventure of Roodle Jones – 2005
Sharavogue: A Novel – 2012
Brand Yourself Royally in 8 Simple Steps – 2015
The Prince of Glencurragh – 2016
The Earl in Black Armor – 2019
When Starlings Fly as One – 2021
The Snow Path to Dingle – 2023 (previously published as Sharavogue)
The Noblest Share of Earth – 2024
Chris Bodor (Poetry)
St. Augustine, FL
St. Johns County
Website: https://ancientcitypoets.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisbodor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Chris-Bodor/author/B07C4JVHJR?
YouTube1: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisbodor
Chris Bodor is a St. Augustine poet, editor, and anthologist who has been a fixture in northeast Florida’s literary community for decades. He co-founded the AC PAPA anthology series celebrating the Ancient City’s poets, authors, photographers, and artists, and has contributed to and edited multiple Florida literary publications. His work roots itself firmly in the working world and the Florida landscape.
Railroad Ties – 1997
Employees Only: The Work Book – 2012 (Editor, Anthology)
FM 8: Winter 2013 – 2013 (Contributor/Editor)
Florida Speaks – 2014
FM 9 – 2014 (Contributor/Editor)
AC PAPA Book 1 – 2014
AC PAPA Book 2 – 2016
J.L. (Janet Kite) Bond (YA Fantasy/Adventure)
St. Augustine, FL
St. Johns County
Website: https://www.janetlbondauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janet.kite.bond
Series Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrimortusChronicles
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thistlegale_/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Thistlegale/
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3RnUMSd
Janet Kite Bond is a St. Augustine YA fantasy author who co-wrote The Primortus Chronicles series with Val Richards before launching her own solo work. Her newest book, Anthem Lightner and the Realm of the Fount, published in April 2026, signals an exciting new direction and confirms her as one of the most actively publishing fantasy authors in our St. Johns County coverage area. She maintains an active presence across multiple social media platforms under the Thistlegale brand.
The Primortus Chronicles (Co-Author Val Richards)
Eleventh Elementum – 2012 – Out of Print
Hollowed Humusara – 2014 – Out of Print
Plagued Primortus: A Teen Dystopian Adventure – Out of Print
Solo Work
Anthem Lightner and the Realm of the Fount – April 2026
LaVenia Boswell (Romance/Sci-Fi/Paranormal/Contemporary/Christian)
Jacksonville, FL
Duval County
Passed away 2016
Website: https://laveniaboswell.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lavenia.boswell
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4v5QltJ
LaVenia Boswell was a prolific Jacksonville author who published more than a dozen novels across romance, paranormal, science fiction, and Christian fiction genres, many of them in a single remarkable burst of creativity in 2011. She wrote with irreverent humor and a strong sense of faith, describing her mission as telling stories her way, without apology. Her books remain available on Amazon as a testament to an author who made the most of every moment she had.
Zen To His Zang! – 2011
The Dawning Trilogy
The Dawning – 2011
Light of Day – 2011
Evening Star – 2011
Mystic Happening (The Dawning Trilogy books1-3)– 2011
Victoria’s Crossing – 2011
April’s Crossing – 2011
Praying Down Heaven – 2011
My Alien Love – 2011
Alien Love Too! – 2011
Samantha Lynn & The Mountain Men – 2012
Bad Boy Blues – 2012
Sinner & The Saints – 2013
LeEllen Bubar (Memoirs)
Mayo, FL
Lafayette County
1930 – 2024
LeEllen Beverly Bubar lived one of the most remarkable lives of any author in our directory. Born in Michigan in 1930, she and her husband Clifford spent nearly 40 years as Baptist missionaries in the U.S. Virgin Islands before eventually settling in Mayo, Florida. Her memoir reflects that extraordinary journey of faith, service, and adventure far from home. She passed away on May 9, 2024 at the age of 94 in Lake City, Florida, leaving behind her husband of 69 years, a son, three grandchildren, and two great-grandsons, as well as the enduring gratitude of communities in St. Croix who remembered her warmth and encouragement decades later.
Dare to Say ‘Yes’: It Happened on an Island – 2017
Joe Bullard (True Crime/Florida History/Investigative Non-Fiction)
Lake City, FL
Columbia County
Joe Bullard is a Lake City author and investigative journalist whose decade of research into Florida’s Coral Castle earned him six appearances on Coast to Coast AM between 2004 and 2018. His second book examines the Ruby McCollum case, one of the most racially charged and legally suppressed murder trials in Florida history, through the lens of the bolita gambling underworld connecting the key figures. A journalism graduate of the University of West Florida and former instructor at Lake City Community College, Bullard remains one of Columbia County’s most distinctive literary voices.
Waiting for Agnes: Inspired by the True Story of Coral Castle – 2004
Bolita Sam: A New Twist on the Ruby McCollum Story – 2010 (Available through used book dealers only)
Johnny Bullard (Fiction)
White Springs, FL
Hamilton County
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnny.bullard.1
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4tUKEh8
Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/johnny.bullard.744321/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnbullard16/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@johnbullard16
Johnny Bullard is one of the most deeply rooted voices in Hamilton County, a White Springs native who has spent the better part of his life teaching, leading, and writing about the Suwannee River region he loves. Born and raised in White Springs, he served as a teacher and principal at South Hamilton Elementary for over two decades, as a Hamilton County School Board member for seven years, and as a part-time employee of the Suwannee River Regional Library. He writes the weekly column “Around the Banks of the Suwannee” for the Suwannee Democrat and other area newspapers, drawing on his deep personal memory of the people, places, and culture of north central Florida to produce some of the most authentic local writing in the region. His four novels bring the same insider knowledge to fiction, capturing the landscapes, characters, and rhythms of rural North Florida with the confidence of someone who has never left and never wanted to. He remains actively involved in Hamilton and Columbia County community events and is a familiar face at local festivals and author gatherings throughout the region.
Weekly Column
Around the Banks of the Suwannee – Suwannee Democrat and area newspapers – ongoing
Nightshade – 2015
Secrets – 2015
Destini – 2017
Black Runs the River – 2019
David Butler (Fiction)
Jasper, FL
Hamilton County
Website: https://davidbwrites2.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.butler.9047506
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4a6lBR4
David Butler is a Jasper author whose fiction explores life in Hamilton County and the broader Suwannee River region with an insider’s eye and a storyteller’s ear. His novel Echo on the Suwannee, published in 2022, reflects a deep attachment to the river and the communities along its banks. Like several authors in our rural North Florida listings, Butler has minimal web presence and is best reached through local channels.
Ellaville – 2016
Back Up Lavon! And Other Short Life Stories – 2016
Signal Six – 2017
Echo on the Suwannee – 2022
Home for the Holidays: In the Deep South – 2024
