Page Count

Be a Cockroach at the Columbus Book Festival

Page Count hit the road in July to record a panel interview with authors and podcasters Rob Harvilla, Libby Kay, and Alex Rowland in front of a live audience at the Columbus Book Festival. Listen in as Rob, Libby, and Alex discuss their work, offer tips for other writers and podcasters, define “podcast princess,” share mistakes and lessons learned, reveal why the Columbus Book Festival was one of their favorite events, and encourage writers to aspire to be cockroaches. Yes, cockroaches. Also, Laura explains how she messed up the original event recording and had to fix her mistakes, so that’s fun!
 
Rob Harvilla is the host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the '90s, the author of the book of the same name, and a senior staff writer at The Ringer. He recently debuted the next iteration of his podcast, 60 Songs That Explain the '90s: The 2000s.
 
Libby Kay is an author of romance novels, including the Buckeye Falls series. The most recent novel in this series is Forever to Fall; she promoted Faking the Fall at the Columbus Book Festival. Libby cohosts the Romance Roundup podcast with Liz Donatelli.
 
Alexandra Rowland is the author of fantasy books, including A Taste of Gold and Iron and A Conspiracy of Truths, among others. Alex’s latest novel is Yield Under Great Persuasion; they promoted Running Close to the Wind at the Columbus Book Festival. Alex was a four-time Hugo Award-nominated podcaster as a cohost of Be the Serpent.
 
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, Twitter, or Facebook.

40 Years of Poetry with David Hassler

In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, David Hassler, the Bob and Walt Wick Executive Director of the Wick Poetry Center, sheds light on the Center’s history, programs, and community impact while also sharing a few poems and discussing highlights from the recent anniversary events.
 
Robert Wick, a sculptor and former art department faculty member at Kent State University, and his brother, Walter Wick, established the Wick Poetry Center in memory of their sons. Today, the Wick Poetry Center encourages new voices by promoting opportunities for individuals and communities locally, regionally and nationally. Wick engages emerging and established poets and poetry audiences through readings, publications, workshops and scholarship opportunities.
 
David Hassler directs the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University. He is an author, editor, poet, and playwright, with works including the poetry collection Red Kimono, Yellow Barn, for which he was awarded Ohio Poet of the Year 2006; May 4th Voices: Kent State, 1970, a play based on the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project; Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community, a documentary book he authored with photographer Gary Harwood, and which received the Ohioana Book Award and the Carter G. Woodson Honor Book Award; and additional co-edited works. His TEDx talk, “The Conversation of Poetry,” conveys the power of poetry to strengthen communities.
 
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, Twitter, or Facebook.

Settling Ohio with Timothy G. Anderson & Brian Shoen

Brian Schoen, Ph.D., and Timothy G. Anderson, Ph.D., the editors of Settling Ohio: First Peoples and Beyond, discuss Ohio’s history, the inspiration for and genesis of Settling Ohio, their process for putting the book together, academic publishing, and more. Settling Ohio: First Peoples and Beyond was Ohio Center for the Book’s 2024 Great Reads from Great Places selection for adult readers and represented the state at the National Book Festival.  
  
Timothy G. Anderson, Ph.D., is an associate professor of geography at Ohio University.
 
Brian Schoen, Ph.D., is the chair of the Department of History and the James Richard Hamilton/Baker & Hostetler Distinguished Professor of Teaching in the Humanities at Ohio University. He is the author of The Fragile Fabric of Union: Cotton, Federal Politics, and the Global Origins of the Civil War and has coedited three other collections.
 
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.

Carving a Story with Chiquita Mullins Lee & Carmella Van Vleet

Chiquita Mullins Lee and Carmella Van Vleet, authors of the picture book You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce!, discuss the life, art, and significance of Elijah Pierce, a celebrated, self-taught Black folk artist known for his wood carvings. They share how their book grew out of Lee’s play about Elijah Pierce, their collaborative writing process, their experience viewing Pierce’s carvings at the Columbus Museum of Art, what it means to them personally to tell Pierce’s story, and more. You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce! is Ohio’s 2024 Great Reads from Great Places youth selection and represented the state the 2024 National Book Festival. The book is illustrated by Jennifer Mack-Watkins.
 
Chiquita Mullins Lee is an Arts Learning coordinator at the Ohio Arts Council, where she coordinates Ohio’s Poetry Out Loud program along with the Arts Partnership and the Big Yellow School Bus grant programs. Her play about Elijah Pierce, Pierce to the Soul, will be return to the stage on November 1, 2024, at McConnell Arts Center in Columbus.
 
Carmella Van Vleet is a former teacher and the award-winning author of almost two dozen books for kids and adults. She lives in Ohio and likes lists, exclamation points, and baking shows. But not necessarily in that order.
 
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, Twitter, or Facebook.

Exploring the Myth of Annie Oakley with Sara Moore Wagner

Poet Sara Moore Wagner takes listeners on a deep dive into the life and legend of Ohio-born sharpshooter Annie Oakley. As the subject of Wagner’s latest poetry collection, LADY WING SHOT, Oakley appears as an allegorical figure whose stories are built on both fact and fiction—a woman irrevocably connected to the myth of the American West, the cult of fame, feminism and gender roles, and the history of American gun culture. In addition to Oakley, Wagner discusses craft, her writing process, how she puts a poetry collection together, tips for poets looking to submit their work, and more.
 
Sara Moore Wagner is the author of three prize-winning full-length books of poetry: Lady Wing Shot, winner of the 2023 Blue Lynx Prize; Swan Wife, winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Editors Prize; and Hillbilly Madonna, winner of the 2022 Driftwood Press Manuscript Prize. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Tumbling After (Red Bird, 2022) and Hooked Through (Five Oaks Press, 2017). She is a 2022 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award recipient, a 2021 National Poetry Series Finalist, and the recipient of a 2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation award. In 2023, she became the Managing Poetry Editor of Driftwood Press. She teaches Creative Writing part time at Northern Kentucky University, where she recently received their Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity award. She lives in West Chester, Ohio.
 
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, Twitter, or Facebook.

Touring the Thurber House

What do ghosts, unicorns, The New Yorker, and wild wallpaper patterns have in common? James Thurber, of course. Laura and Don take Page Count on the road to give listeners an audio tour of the Thurber House in Columbus, where Leah Wharton, operations director, and Steve Andersson, a docent and educator, shed light on the life and work of the American humorist James Thurber. In the process, they seek out the ghost(s) that allegedly haunt the house, consider the age-old cats vs. dogs debate, spy a unicorn in the garden, discuss Thurber’s books and cartoons, and much more. To view photos from Page Count’s visit, be sure to visit our accompanying blog post, “Inside the Thurber House.”
 
James Thurber was a humorist, cartoonist, author, playwright, and journalist known for his quirky and relatable characters and themes. One of the foremost American humorists of the 20th century, Thurber’s inimitable wit and pithy prose spanned a breadth of mediums and genres, including short stories, illustrations, modern commentary, fables, children's fantasy, and letters. Many of his drawings and stories first appeared in The New Yorker. Some of Thurber’s famous tales include “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “The Night the Ghost Got In,” “The Dog That Bit People,” “The Night the Bed Fell,” and “The Unicorn in the Garden.” Thurber’s drawings often feature dogs and family life.
 
Founded in 1984, Thurber House is a nonprofit literary arts center, museum, historic landmark, and gathering place for readers, writers, and artists of all ages based in the restored 1873 home of James Thurber. Thurber House programs include The Thurber Prize for American Humor, author events featuring nationally bestselling authors and local authors, writing workshops for children and adults, writer residencies, and more.
 
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.

At the Sewanee Writers’ Conference with Leah Stewart

It’s summertime, and writers, you know what that means: it’s conference season! To celebrate, we’re speaking with Leah Stewart, the director of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, one of the best and most prestigious writing workshops in the country. Stewart shares how the conference works, the changes she’s made since taking the reins as director, tips for applying, why summer conferences are valuable for writers, the importance of financial support, and how literary organizations can evolve their institutional culture for the benefit of attendees, staff, and faculty alike. She also discusses her own writing process, why researching her latest novel made her relieved to be a writer instead of an actor, the current publishing landscape for novelists, and more.
Leah Stewart is a professor at the University of Cincinnati, the director of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the author of six novels: Body of a Girl, The Myth of You and Me, Husband and Wife, The History of Us, The New Neighbor, and What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw. She lives in Cincinnati. Applications for the 2025 Sewanee Writers’ Conference will open in January 2025.
 
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.

The Center for the Book Is a State of Mind

Straight from “the mothership of all libraries,” Guy Lamolinara, head of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, joins Laura and Don to discuss how his career evolved from aspiring dentist to journalist to thirty-four-year veteran of the Library of Congress, his formative years in Cleveland, the network of Center for the Book state affiliates, the upcoming the National Book Festival, and much more.
 
The Library of Congress recently released the full author lineup for the National Book Festival, which takes place Saturday, August 24, 2024, in Washington, DC. Visit the 2024 National Book Festival website to learn more about this free event, where Ohio Center for the Book representatives will be in attendance to celebrate Ohio's literary heritage and the 2024 Great Reads from Great Places selections.
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.

100 Years of Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Digest Editor-in-Chief Amy Jones opens the magazine’s archives to take us back to a time when typewriters were king, paying markets for short stories abounded, and song sharks lurked in the literary waters. Tune in to learn what has changed in the last 100 years for writers—and what hasn’t. (Spoiler: Rejection is a constant. Typewriters and SASEs? Not so much.) In the process, explore the history of Writer’s Digest magazine, which has been headquartered in Cincinnati since 1921.
 
To see images from the February 1924 issue of Writer’s Digest discussed in this episode, visit “The Life of a Writer in 1924” on the Ohio Center for the Book website.      
 
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.

Rediscovering Dawn Powell

Hemingway called her his favorite novelist. Gore Vidal directed attention back to her work after her death. Even Rory Gilmore was spotted reading her novels in Gilmore Girls. Who was Dawn Powell, and why isn't her work more widely known? Dr. Jennifer Swartz-Levine, Professor of English and Dean of the School of Arts, Education, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Lake Erie College, helps us rediscover this prolific midcentury American author who penned satirical novels that skewer New York society as well as heartfelt autobiographical fiction about her Ohio roots.
 
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.