Page Count

Into the Sewer with Jay B. Kalagayan

Journey into the sewer with Jay B. Kalagayan, the creator, writer, and publisher of MeSseD, a comic series inspired by the nickname for the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSD) that follows the adventures of sewer worker Lilliput. Kalagayan discusses the art of comic creation and collaboration, his influences, the value of diverse stories and representation, pursuing creativity at all ages, the comics landscape in Ohio, infrastructure, sewer worms, partners in slime, and, naturally, the Hell Is Real billboard.                                                                   
 
Kalagayan is the executive director of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), a free comics, art, and animation festival in Columbus, Ohio. An entrepreneur and arts advocate in Cincinnati for the last 25 years, he is the founder of Know Theatre of Cincinnati and a co-founder of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. He is a writer of plays, cartoon strips, reviews, articles, marketing collateral, fundraising appeals, and geeky event calendars. Photo by Mikki Schaffner Photography.
 
The first two seasons of MeSseD are available digitally for free at messedcomics.com, and the series is available on WebToon. Kalagayan will participate in the Cincinnati Comic Expo September 22-24 and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus September 27-October 1.
 
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 Twitter or on Facebook.

Revising Nancy Drew with Jennifer Fisher

Jennifer Fisher, a Nancy Drew expert, author, collector, and historian, sheds light on the life and work of Mildred Wirt Benson, the original ghostwriter of the Nancy Drew series. Fisher reveals how and why the original 34 Nancy Drew books, which were published beginning in the 1930s, were revised decades later—sometimes significantly. She compares the original and revised versions of THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE; discusses the Jennifer Fisher Collection & Portfolio at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library; considers how Mildred Wirt Benson might be considered a real-life Nancy Drew; describes the 1980 court case surrounding the rights to the Nancy Drew series; and offers tips surrounding the art of biography writing.
 
To learn more about Nancy Drew, visit Fisher’s comprehensive website, which offers information about Nancy Drew books, history, facts, collectibles, and beyond.
 
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 Twitter or on Facebook.

Panelists Weigh In: Applying for an OAC Grant, Part 2

As past panelists for the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, Traci Brimhall, Melissa Faliveno, and Tanya Rey share what it was like to read and judge applications. They discuss what made an application stand out, how writers can craft the narrative and philosophy statements to good effect, the importance of submitting polished work, the inherent subjectivity of the process, persistence in the face of rejection, and more.
 
About the Panelists:
Traci Brimhall's fifth poetry collection, Love Prodigal, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2024. She is also the author of Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod (Copper Canyon Press, 2020); Saudade (Copper Canyon Press, 2017); Our Lady of the Ruins (W.W. Norton, 2012), selected by Carolyn Forché for the 2011 Barnard Women Poets Prize; and Rookery (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010). Her children’s book, Sophia & The Boy Who Fell, was published by SeedStar Books in March 2017.
 
Melissa Faliveno is the author of the debut essay collection Tomboyland, named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, New York Public Library, Oprah Magazine, and Electric Literature and recipient of a 2021 Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association. Her writing has appeared in Esquire, Paris Review, Bitch, Literary Hub, Ms Magazine, Brooklyn Rail, Prairie Schooner, and in the anthology Sex and The Single Woman (Harper Perennial, 2022).
 
Tanya Rey is a queer Cuban-American writer whose work has appeared in Guernica, Granta, The Sun, Roads & Kingdoms, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Georgia Review, and Catapult, among others. She holds an MFA from New York University and has received fellowships from The Georgia Review, Rona Jaffe Foundation, San Francisco Writers Grotto, MacDowell, Hedgebrook, UCross, Blue Mountain Center, I-Park, and others. Rey has worked as managing editor for One Story and fiction editor for Epiphany and has taught creative writing at New York University and Writing Pad in San Francisco.
 
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 Twitter or on Facebook.

Applying for an OAC Grant, Part 1: Chaz O’Neil

Chaz O’Neil, the Individual Artist Programs & Percent for Art Coordinator for the Ohio Arts Council, offers behind-the-scenes tips for Ohio writers applying for the $5,000 OAC Individual Excellent Awards. He discusses eligibility, types of writing accepted, submission guidelines, narrative and philosophy statements, the judging process, and how writers can prepare the strongest application possible. Laura also shares a bit about her own application that won her one of these grants in 2022. Learn more about O'Neil at his website and on Instagram.
 
The Individual Excellence Award application deadline is September 1, 2023. Be sure to check out Part 2 of this series to hear from past OAC panelists who offer advice to applicants.
 
Additional OAC Resources:
YouTube Channel
Artist with Disability Access Grant
Traditional Arts Apprenticeship
Ohio Heritage Fellowships
Percent for Art
Ohio Artist Registry
Artist Opportunity Database
 
Following this episode, we offer a preview of “Revising Nancy Drew,” our episode featuring Nancy Drew expert and collector Jennifer Fisher. This episode will drop a day early on July 3. Stay tuned!
 
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 Twitter or on Facebook.

Page Count Live: Turning Points in a Writing Career

This episode was recorded before a live audience at the 2023 Ohioana Book Festival at the Columbus Metropolitan Library on April 22, 2023. A panel of five authors discuss turning points in their writing careers—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the existentially fraught. This conversation covers everything from rejection to reader reactions, imposter syndrome, awards, inspiration, validation, and more.
 
Featured authors include:
Mindy McGinnis, author of the YA mystery A Long Stretch of Bad Days
Ric Sheffield, author of the memoir We Got By: A Black Family’s Journey in the Heartland
Judith Turner-Yamamoto, author of the novel Loving the Dead and Gone
Andrea Wang, author of the picture books Watercress and Luli and the Language of Tea
Felicia Zamora, author of the poetry collection I Always Carry My Bones
 
For more information, visit the Ohioana Book Festival page.
 
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 Twitter or on Facebook.

Nonfiction Critiques with Kristen Elias Rowley

Kristen Elias Rowley, the editor in chief of The Ohio State University Press and its literary imprint, Mad Creek Books, sheds light on the nonfiction publishing landscape. She discusses university and small press publishing, the types of books Mad Creek publishes, the importance of discovering new voices, diversity in publishing, how she works with authors, and trends she sees in memoir submissions. Finally, she critiques the opening pages of three nonfiction submissions submitted by Ohio writers.
 
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 Twitter or on Facebook.

Writing Collaboratively with Huda Al-Marashi

To celebrate the publication of Grounded, a new middle-grade novel surrounding four kids searching for a lost cat in an airport, Huda Al-Marashi discusses the art of writing and publishing collaboratively. She sheds light on the technicalities of the collaboration process, the value of writing friendships, the commitment required to finish a book, writing for adults vs. kids, her advice for writers at two distinct parts of their careers, and more.
 
Grounded is coauthored by Al-Marashi and Aisha Saeed, S. K. Ali, and Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow.
 
Huda Al-Marashi is the author of the bestselling memoir First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story. Her other writing has appeared in various anthologies and news outlets, such as the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and al Jazeera, and she is a fellow with the Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers Program. Grounded is her first novel for young readers.
 
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 Twitter or on Facebook.

Season 2 Trailer

Page Count’s second season kicks off on May 9! Listen to snippets from just a few of our upcoming episodes featuring the following authors and experts:
 
Huda Al-Marashi, co-author of the new middle-grade novel Grounded, discusses the art of writing collaboratively.
Kristen Elias Rowley, editor-in-chief of the Ohio State University Press, critiques nonfiction pages from Ohio writers.
Jennifer Fisher, Nancy Drew expert and collector, offers insight into Mildred Benson, one of the original authors of the beloved Nancy Drew series.
Chaz O’Neil of the Ohio Arts Council provides tips for writers applying for OAC’s Individual Excellence Awards.
Jay Kalagayan, comics creator and author of MeSseD, discusses comics, creativity, and the wondrous world of sewers.
and many more to come.
Subscribe to Page Count wherever you get your podcasts to listen to these episodes and many more during Page Count’s second season. The season begins May 9, with a new episode dropping every two weeks.
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For 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 Twitter or on Facebook.

April Hiatus

You know what they say: an April hiatus brings May . . . episodes? In any case, Page Count is taking a break from full-length episodes in April. But don’t worry—we’ll be back for a second season, which features an exciting lineup of guests, beginning May 9, 2023. A trailer for this second season will drop April 25.
 
Finally, our host, Laura Maylene Walter, will moderate a panel at the Ohioana Book Festival on April 22, 2023. This panel discussion, “Turning Points in a Writing Career,” will become a future Page Count episode.  
 
Stay tuned for a lot more in Page Count’s second season!
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For 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 Twitter or on Facebook

Bonus Episode: Ohioana Book Festival Preview

This bonus episode celebrates the return of an in-person Ohioana Book Festival on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library. The day will include panel discussions, readings, activities, an on-site book fair, and a live Page Count podcast recording, among other offerings.
 
Festival authors featured in this episode who are scheduled to participate in the live Page Count panel, “Turning Points in a Writing Career,” include:
 
Mindy McGinnis, author of the YA mystery A Long Stretch of Bad Days
Ric Sheffield, author of the memoir We Got By: A Black Family's Journey in the Heartland
Judith Turner-Yamamoto, author of the novel Loving the Dead and Gone
Andrea Wang, author of the picture book Luli and the Language of Tea
Felicia Zamora, author of the poetry collection I Always Carry My Bones
 
Additional authors mentioned in this episode: Abby Collette, Amanda Flower, Brad Ricca, Tom Batiuk, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Cinda Williams Chima, Tricia Springstubb, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Prince Shakur, and Will Hillenbrand.
 
For the full list of more than 150 participating authors and illustrators, visit Ohioana’s 2023 Festival Authors page. For more information about the festival, visit the Ohioana Book Festival page. We hope to see you in Columbus on April 22!
 
Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For 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 Twitter or on Facebook.