Page Count

Literary Screening: Entering the Twilight Zone with Dr. Kim Kiehl

Listeners, welcome to the fifth dimension. We’re joined by Dr. Kim Kiehl, Executive Director of the Ohioana Library Association, to discuss The Twilight Zone and its creator, Rod Serling. We focus on “Mirror Image,” an episode airing in Season 1 of the show’s original run, but we also talk about the series at large, Serling’s Ohio roots and his writing career, and just why The Twilight Zone remains relevant today. We also discuss cows, clowns, our own doppelgänger experiences, Ohioana’s offerings, and more.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Clicking Our Heels Three Times with Dr. Taylor Byas

Poet and editor Dr. Taylor Byas is here to discuss her award-winning debut poetry collection, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times. Along the way, she shares insights into writing about place, how The Wiz serves as structural inspiration for the collection, her literary inspirations and heroes, the value of Ph.D. programs in creative writing, her editorial work at The Rumpus, the art of chapbooks, managing expectations as an author, and a lot more. She also offers listeners a special preview of Resting Bitch Face, her second full-length collection forthcoming in August 2025.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Maintaining the Narrative Spell with Hilary Plum

Hilary Plum discusses her new novel, State Champ, which surrounds an abortion clinic employee who goes on a hunger strike to protest her boss’s imprisonment. In this far-reaching conversation, Plum sheds light on the spontaneity of art and protest; the history of the hunger strike; the dark joys of writing a complicated, acerbic protagonist; elite athletes; eating disorders; crafting a novel’s plot (or not); small press publishing vs. the Big 5 and larger independent publishing houses; the value of MFA programs; and a lot more.  
 
Hilary Plum is the author of six books, including, most recently, State Champ (Bloomsbury, May 2025), an Indie Next List pick. With Zach Savich, Plum edits the Open Prose Series at Rescue Press. With Zach Peckham, she co-hosts the podcast Index for Continuance. She teaches at Cleveland State University and serves as associate director of the CSU Poetry Center.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Honoring Linda Anne Eastman, a Pioneering Librarian

As part of Cleveland Public Library’s celebrations surrounding the 100th anniversary of Main Library, Page Count honors Linda Anne Eastman, the first woman to lead a large metropolitan library system in the United States. Through letters, documents, photographs, speeches, and other archival material, Cleveland Public Library Archivist Melissa Carr sheds light on Eastman’s life and work. From Eastman’s first visit to Cleveland Public Library to her fruitful working relationship with William Howard Brett, her many achievements and innovations, her unflagging work ethic, and more, Carr takes listeners on a journey back in time to bring to life an extraordinary woman whose work transformed our library, our city, and the librarian profession at large.
 
May 6, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of Cleveland Public Library’s Main Library building, which Eastman worked tirelessly to help plan, design, and make a reality. The Library will host a series of events at the downtown campus on Saturday, May 10 to celebrate this milestone. Learn more about the anniversary events here. To view images of Eastman and other archival materials, visit "Celebrating Linda Anne Eastman and Main Library's 100th Anniversary."
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Literary Screening: The Tender Bar with RW Franklin

Next up in our Literary Screening series is the 2021 film The Tender Bar, an adaptation of J.R. Moehringer’s 2005 memoir. RW Franklin, a writer and past Lit Youngstown board member, is here to break down the film, which is a coming-of-age story of a young man finding his place in the world—and his voice as a writer. She also discusses her own writing journey, her decision to use a pen name, the value of workshops, building confidence, writing what scares you, worldbuilding, finding your community as a writer, Lit Youngstown’s offerings, and more.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Literary Screening: American Fiction with Literary Cleveland

Welcome to the first episode of Literary Screening, a new series that invites Page Count guests to discuss films or television shows with a literary connection. First up is American Fiction, the 2023 adaptation of Percival Everett’s novel Erasure. Laura is joined by Matt Weinkam and Michelle Smith of Literary Cleveland to consider how the film satirizes the publishing industry and academia, what it has to say about race and the depiction of Black families in film, comparisons between the book and film adaptation, and a lot more.
 
Literary Cleveland is a nonprofit organization and creative writing center that empowers people to explore other voices and discover their own. Learn more about the 2025 Cleveland Poetry Festival, which takes place April 25-27 with a theme of The Body Politic; the Inkubator, one of the largest free writing festivals in the country; and more, including dozens of classes and programs for writers of all levels.
 
Matt Weinkam is the Executive Director of Literary Cleveland. His work has been published in HAD, Denver Quarterly, Sonora Review, New South, DIAGRAM, Jellyfish Review, Split Lip, and Electric Literature. He holds an MA in creative writing from Miami University, an MFA in fiction from Northern Michigan University, and he has taught creative writing as far away as Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, China.
 
Michelle R. Smith is the Programming Director at Literary Cleveland, as well as a writer, poet, educator, cultural facilitator, and native Clevelander. She is the author of the poetry collections Ariel in Black (2015) and The Vagina Analogues (2020), and the creator of BLAX MUSEUM, an annual performance showcase dedicated to honoring notable Black figures in American history and culture.
 
Be sure to check out Michelle and Matt’s writing. And hey, give us a call if you need to revive a sentence.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Season 4 Trailer

Page Count’s fourth season kicks off on April 8, 2025! Listen to snippets from just a few of our upcoming episodes featuring the following guests:
 
Matt Weinkam and Michelle Smith of Literary Cleveland discuss the film American Fiction, Percival Everett, and the economic realities of being a writer.
Lisa Ampleman, Managing Editor of The Cincinnati Review, discusses the art of editing by sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the editing process for a poem and short story recently published in the journal.
Melissa Carr, Archivist at Cleveland Public Library, brings history to life when discussing pioneering librarian Linda Anne Eastman.
Dr. Kim Kiehl, Executive Director of the Ohioana Library Association, discusses The Twilight Zone and creator Rod Serling’s Ohio connection.
Karen Henry Clark discusses her picture book, Library Girl, which illuminates librarian Nancy Pearl’s childhood and library origin story.
Dr. Taylor Byas discusses her latest and forthcoming poetry collections, her journey as a poet, and working as an editor of The Rumpus.
RW Franklin discusses the film The Tender Bar, Lit Youngstown, and her own writing journey.
 
Subscribe to Page Count wherever you get your podcasts to listen to these episodes and many more during our fourth season. The season—and our new Literary Screening series—debuts April 8 with an episode focusing on American Fiction with Literary Cleveland staff. A new episode of Page Count drops every two weeks, so stay tuned.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Page Count Turns Three!

Laura and Don celebrate Page Count’s third anniversary by discussing some of their favorite episodes from Season 3, touching on everything from MacArthur geniuses to Annie Oakley, typewriters, graveyards, unicorns, bioluminescence, ghosts, Laura’s aversion to clip shows, and a lot more. They also look ahead to Season 4, which will introduce Literary Screening, a new series featuring conversations about films or TV shows with a literary connection. As always, Page Count’s upcoming season will include interviews with authors, librarians, publishing professionals, and literary organizers, along with live events, onsite audio tours, and more. Season 4 premieres April 8, 2025, with a trailer dropping March 25.
 
Laura Maylene Walter is Ohio Center for the Book Fellow at Cleveland Public Library, the host of Page Count, and the author of Body of Stars (Dutton). Don Boozer is the Literature Department Manager at Cleveland Public Library and the Ohio Center for the Book Coordinator.
 
Episodes Mentioned:
Page Count Live with Hanif Abdurraqib & Jacqueline Woodson
Page Count Live: Writing Toward Peace with Loung Ung
The Center for the Book Is a State of Mind
Rediscovering Dawn Powell
Exploring the Myth of Annie Oakley with Sara Moore Wagner
Carving a Story with Chiquita Mullins Lee & Carmella Van Vleet
100 Years of Writer’s Digest
Among the Graves in Ohio’s Cemeteries
Touring the Thurber House
New Year’s Resolutions for Writers
Be a Cockroach at the Columbus Book Festival
The Art of Audiobook Narration
Making Light with Julia Kuo
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Experimental Fiction with Mary Grimm

Mary Grimm leads listeners through the tunnels, dreams, purgatories, and ghost towns that appear in her new story collection, Transubstantiation. Along the way, she discusses her literary influences and heroes, experimental writing, story beginnings and endings, publishing short fiction in The New Yorker and beyond, the line between autobiographical fiction and creative nonfiction, setting fictional stories in real places, post-mortem photography, why she loves teaching writing, what makes a good title story in a collection, why she wrote a story in response to the “it was all a dream” trope, and more.
 
Mary Grimm’s previous books include the novel Left to Themselves and the story collection Stealing Time. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Antioch Review, and the Mississippi Review, as well as in a number of journals that publish flash fiction, including Helen, The Citron Review, and Tiferet. Currently, she is working on a series of climate change novellas set in past and future Cleveland.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.

Celebrating James Baldwin with Quartez Harris

Quartez Harris is here to discuss his new picture book, Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, which illuminates Baldwin’s childhood and literary foundation. Harris discusses Baldwin’s early challenges and support systems, how a young Baldwin found refuge in the library, Baldwin’s queer identity, and why glitter serves as a recurring metaphor in Go Tell It. In addition to shedding light on this great author’s beginnings, Harris also discusses his own development as a writer—how he came to love poetry after grappling with a learning disability, his writing and editing process for Go Tell It, what he’s working on next, and more.
 
Quartez Harris is a poet, teacher, and author. He was a Baldwin House fellow and named Ohio Poet of the Year for his book We Made It to School Alive, and his poetry has garnered numerous accolades. He spent many years as a second-grade teacher in the Cleveland public school system, and he currently spends his time writing and teaching poetry workshops. He lives in Ohio with his wife and son.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited 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 or Facebook.