Page Count

David Weaver, executive director of the Ohioana Library Association, makes his second appearance on the podcast to discuss the upcoming Ohioana Book Festival. In addition to sharing festival highlights, including a special live Page Count conversation featuring Hanif Abdurraqib and Jacqueline Woodson, Weaver discusses his work with Ohioana, his upcoming retirement, and Ohio’s contributions to the literary world.
 
The 18th annual Ohioana Book Festival will be held at Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library on Saturday, April 20, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Additional programs and activities will take place in the community throughout April. Page Count’s special live episode with Hanif Abdurraqib and Jacqueline Woodson will be held at 12pm on Saturday, April 20 in the auditorium.
 
Ohioana Book Festival
2024 Festival Authors
2024 Festival Schedule
Ohioana Library Association
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library and hosted by Laura Maylene Walter. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

In celebration of the paperback release of her latest novel, Alchemy of a Blackbird, Claire McMillan discusses the art and life of Remedios Varo, historical fiction, surrealism, and Pamela Colman Smith, the artist behind the world’s most famous tarot deck. She also dives into the alchemy of writing, from finding the perfect title to writing “drawer novels” and beyond. Finally, McMillan answers questions from Page Count listeners surrounding the challenges of the sophomore novel and talking (or not) about current works in progress.
 
Claire McMillan is the author of Alchemy of a Blackbird, The Necklace, and Gilded Age, which was inspired by Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth. She was the 2017–2018 Cuyahoga County Writer-in-Residence and currently serves as a member of the board of trustees of The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, Massachusetts. She practiced law until 2003 and then received her MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. She grew up in Pasadena, California, and now lives on her husband’s family farm outside of Cleveland, Ohio, with their two children.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library and hosted by Laura Maylene Walter. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
 

We’re pleased to share this Writers Unplugged event featuring Cleveland author Susan Petrone. Jen Jumba of Cleveland Public Library conducted this interview in person on February 7, 2024, to discuss Petrone’s latest novel, the power of music, the unreliability of memory, the thrill of finding yourself in a book, and, of course, the falafel and milkshakes at Tommy’s.
 
Writers Unplugged is a Cleveland Public Library series uniting authors, performers, journalists, activists, and educators to delve into the issues impacting our communities. Susan Petrone is the author of The Musical Mozinskis (2024), The Heebie-Jeebie Girl (2020), The Super Ladies (2018), Throw Like a Woman (2015), and A Body at Rest (2009). She was a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for FY 2020.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library and hosted by Laura Maylene Walter. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Brian Broome, author of the debut memoir Punch Me Up to the Gods, discusses growing up in rural Ohio, how he was discovered by a literary agent at a storytelling event, how he navigates writing about family, how he approaches structure and revision, and the story in his memoir that made Laura cringe the hardest (that’s a compliment). Broome also answers questions from Page Count listeners surrounding challenges faced by working-class writers and the recent Goodreads review bombing controversy.
 
Brian Broome is the author of Punch Me Up to the Gods (Mariner Books, 2021), which won the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, Publisher Triangle’s Randy Shilts Award for Nonfiction, and the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Memoir/Biography. He is K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and instructor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Broome has been a finalist in The Moth storytelling competition and won the grand prize in Carnegie Mellon University’s Martin Luther King Writing Awards. He also won a VANN Award from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation for journalism in 2019. Broome lives in Pittsburgh.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library and hosted by Laura Maylene Walter. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

In honor of Toni Morrison Day on February 18, Page Count took a field trip to Lorain Public Library to tour the Toni Morrison Reading Room. Cheri Campbell, Local History and Archives Librarian, guides listeners through the room while providing history, lore, and anecdotes about Morrison’s life and storied literary career. From Morrison’s time growing up in Lorain (including how she got hired, fired, and hired once more at Lorain Public Library), to winning the Nobel Prize in Literature and beyond, this episode is a must for Morrison fans.
 
To see some of the images mentioned in this episode—including Toni Morrison’s high school yearbook photo, pictures from her appearance at the reading room dedication, and more—read our accompanying blog post, “Inside the Toni Morrison Reading Room.”
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

We’re honored to share this episode of Wild Precious Life, a Cleveland-based podcast hosted by Annmarie Kelly, to remember the life and work of Echo Brown. Brown was the celebrated author of BLACK GIRL UNLIMITED, THE CHOSEN ONE, and the one-woman play, BLACK VIRGINS ARE NOT FOR HIPSTERS. She died in 2023, at the age of thirty-nine, after a long illness. In this episode, which originally aired in 2022, she and Annmarie Kelly discuss health, writing, creativity, and the art of discovering—and creating—magic in life as well as on the page.
 
Listen and subscribe to Wild Precious Life and follow Annmarie Kelly.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Author and Writer’s Digest editor-at-large Jessica Strawser answers publishing questions from Page Count listeners, defines “book club fiction,” shares insights gleaned from her career as a six-time novelist, and discusses her latest novel, THE LAST CARETAKER.
 
Strawser is the author of the book club favorites ALMOST MISSED YOU, NOT THAT I COULD TELL, FORGET YOU KNOW ME, A MILLION REASONS WHY, and THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW. Her sixth novel, the instant USA Today bestseller THE LAST CARETAKER, surrounds a resident caretaker on a nature reserve who discovers her new home hides a safe house aiding domestic violence victims. In addition to her career as a novelist, Strawser is the editor-at-large and columnist at Writer’s Digest, where she served as editorial director for nearly a decade. 
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

In a live episode recorded at the Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival, Ross Gay and Alison Stine discuss joy, trash, the art of writing quickly and without pressure, novel drafting, revision, writerly obsessions, creating art in a burning world, and, of course, why we must bring each other French fries. 
 
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He is also the author of three collections of essays: The Book of Delights,  Inciting Joy, and, most recently, The Book of (More) Delights. Photo credit: Natasha Komoda.
 
Alison Stine is the author of the novel Trashlands, which was longlisted for the 2022 Reading the West Book Award, a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award, and longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Her first novel, Road Out of Winter, won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. Her next novel, Dust, is forthcoming in 2024. She is also the author of three poetry collections and a novella.
 
This conversation was recorded before a live audience at Youngstown State University on October 21, 2023 at the Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

We’re excited to share this excellent interview about the art of running a reading series from Index for Continuance, which is produced by the CSU Poetry Center and hosted by Hilary Plum and Zach Peckham. In this conversation, Hilary Plum speaks with novelist Sarah Rose Etter about reading series and their place in the literary landscape. From practical tips surrounding running a series—gleaned from Etter’s time hosting TireFire in Philadelphia—to advice for writers stepping up to the microphone to give readings of their own, this episode offers a crash course in literary community, performance, and citizenship.
 
Index for Continuance is a podcast focusing on small press publishing, politics, and practice by engaging editors, writers, publishers, critics, booksellers, and organizers involved in independent, small press, DIY, and community literary work in conversation. Index for Continuance aims to build an archive of grassroots knowledge that can serve the future of publishing. Learn more about the CSU Poetry Center, which produces Index for Continuance.
 
Sarah Rose Etter the author of the novels Ripe (Scribner, 2023), a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time Must-Read Book of 2023, and The Book of X (Two Dollar Radio, 2019), winner of the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award. Her short fiction collection, Tongue Party, was selected by Deb Olin Unferth as the winner of the 2011 Caketrain Award.
 
On a related  note, listen to Unicorn-Level Books with Two Dollar Radio, Page Count’s interview with Two Dollar Radio editors Eric Obenauf and Eliza Wood-Obenauf.
 
Page Count returns with a new episode on January 2: the recording of an in-person conversation with Ross Gay and Alison Stine at the Youngstown Fall Literary Festival.

Searching for the perfect books to fill out your holiday shopping list? We’ve got you covered with recommendations from the owners of two independent bookstores in Ohio. Suzanne DeGaetano of Mac’s Backs in Cleveland and Greg Kornbluh of Downbound Books in Cincinnati suggest books to gift readers of all ages and genres, from picture books to graphic novels, poetry, works of nonfiction, cerebral literary novels, and beyond.
 
We encourage listeners to visit (or order online from) Mac’s Backs, Downbound Books, and other independent bookstores this holiday season.
 
Recommendations from Mac’s Backs:
The Voice in the Hollow by Will Hillenbrand
Ain’t It Fun: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk in the Secret City by Aaron Lange
Poem for Cleveland Anthology, edited by Ray McNiece
Foster by Claire Keegan
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? by Mac Barnett & illustrated by Jon Klassen
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed
Refugee by Alan Gratz
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
Bonus: Settling Ohio: First Peoples and Beyond, edited by Timothy G. Anderson & Brian Schoen
 
Recommendations from Downbound Books:
Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up by Jenn Bishop
The Future of Rock and Roll: 97X WOXY and the Fight for True Independence by Robin James
The Shade Tree by Suzy Lee
Dragons Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney
The Lost Subways of North America by Jake Berman
The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape by Katie Holten
Landings: A Crooked Creek Farm Year by Arwen Donahue
The Guest Lecture by Martin Riker
Open Throat by Henry Hoke
 
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.