The Oxford Lane Library hosted its first Local Author Fair on April 12 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Authors from surrounding areas were invited to showcase their books to the public, which were also available for purchase or signing.

Sarah Gifford, a public services librarian at Oxford Lane Library, said she was inspired to host this fair by a display the library has. The second floor is home to a rotating art display of local artists’ works. Gifford said she wanted to do the same, but for authors so they could share their work with not only the public but also others in the local writing community.

Her goal was certainly achieved, as the 15 authors present could be seen chatting among themselves. Some authors Gifford found through King Library at Miami University, since it knew about published staff members. Some authors she reached out to, such as Christen Randall and Cory Driver.

Christen Randall, an author from Covington, Kentucky, who uses she/they pronouns, said she was excited to attend the fair.

“I love being out in the bookish community,” Randall said. “I love helping to support our local public libraries.”

Randall’s main job is writing books, but she also works as a library associate at a local public library. Randall said she wanted to be an author since childhood, but always felt it was unachievable since she grew up in the working class.

She debuted her first novel, “The No-Girlfriend Rule,” in March of 2024. She didn’t go to school for publishing, so she had to learn the business on her own.

“It was lots and lots of trial and error, sometimes heavier on the error than I would like it to be,” Randall said.

Randall said the process was a “really wonderful kind of Cinderella story,” despite the challenges.

“I just was really lucky and got in connection with some really cool folks who are a couple of steps above on the ladder from me, who reached down to help pull me up,” Randall said.

“The No-Girlfriend Rule” is a queer, young adult, coming of age romance book. It’s about Hollis Beckwith, a “fat, broke girl with anxiety,” who decides to learn how to play her boyfriend’s favorite tabletop roleplaying game, “Secrets & Sorcery,” to prove she’s worth keeping after high school. However, his group has a “No Girlfriends at the Table” rule, so she joins Gloria Castañeda and her all-girls group. But after an in-game crush between Beckwith’s character and another player’s, she begins to question what she really wants.

Randall said they thought it’d be fun to write a story about two girls falling in love through their characters first.

“I think that [Dungeons & Dragons is] such a really cool place to play with identity … if there’s parts of yourself that you’re not super comfortable with yet, it’s easier to look at those through the veil of character,” Randall said.

Randall said they are also really excited to center body positivity and acceptance in their books.

“I’m also a lifelong fat person, and I didn’t grow up with fat characters in the books that I was reading, and it felt really important to me to write fat books for fat kids,” Randall said.

Randall said they hope that when people put their book down, they feel like they’ve just had a “nice, warm hug.” But they also hope that readers see they should love themselves for who they are and should find people who accept them.

“I really hope that readers find the message in the book that they are worthy of love and acceptance and believing in themselves no matter what,” Randall said. “It’s not contingent on looking a certain way or loving a certain way.”

Cory Driver was another author at the fair. Driver has lived in Oxford for two years and moved from Indianapolis, Indiana, but spent some time in Cairo, Egypt, as well.

Authoring is more of a side job for Driver – if he has something to write about, he’ll do it. He has taught at theological schools and now teaches at Miami University’s Center for Leading the Integration of Faith & Entrepreneurship (L.I.F.E.).

Driver presented two of his books at the fair: “God, Gender, and Family Trauma: How Rereading Genesis Can Be a Revelation” and “Life Unsettled: A Scriptural Journey for Wilderness Times (Word & World).”

The first, “God, Gender, and Family Trauma,” looks at the book of Genesis through the lens of healing from trauma.

“It’s a multigenerational account of one family and how they hurt each other and how they sometimes heal, and so hopefully drawing lessons from that [on] how to be good neighbors,” Driver said.

The second, “Life Unsettled,” is about the book of Numbers, something he says people generally skip over when reading the Bible.

“It’s all about how to live together in community, how to deal with communal problems and disagreements and misunderstandings, and how to orient ourselves in the right way that leads towards loving neighbors and hopefully healthy community,” Driver said.

Driver said some people find biblical stories hard to get into either because they feel distant, stories have been used to hurt them or for numerous other reasons. He said his books are “human centered” and focus on what is good for humans to do. He said he wants people to be kinder to themselves and others.

“I want to be rereading these texts to say, ‘what are the lessons we can learn … and what contributes to a healthy society and community and family and self?’” Driver said.

Other authors at the fair included Tad Liechty, Don Kauffman, Nancy Moeckel,

Elizabeth Arthur & Steven Bauer, John Bailer & Rosemary Pennington, Laura Gaddis,

Lloyd Mullins, Ashley Ferguson, David Knight, Nik Money, Bob Thurston and Jackie Kalbli.

Gifford said she wants the public to see what local authors are capable of.

“I’m hoping that they will see what kind of talent we have here in our area and just get exposed to maybe some books that they aren’t familiar with,” Gifford said.