Page Count

Ohio Center for the Book
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  • BOOKS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Page Count, presented by the Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library, features interviews with authors, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, publishing professionals, and literary advocates in and from the state of Ohio.

  1. 4D AGO

    Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison

    It’s the year of Toni Morrison! Our friends at Literary Cleveland, in partnership with Ohio Humanities, are leading a yearlong, statewide celebration of the life, literature, and legacy of Toni Morrison, a Lorain, Ohio, native and the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. With the event kickoff just around the corner on February 18, Page Count is celebrating by rerunning our 2024 exploration of the Toni Morrison Reading Room. Listen to learn more about Morrison’s legacy, and then head over to ohiocelebratestonimorrison.org/events to get the scoop on the many incredible events, screenings, discussions, book clubs, and other programs held statewide this year.   To view images from the Toni Morrison Reading Room, visit “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 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.

    32 min

  2. JAN 27

    Cross-Cultural Character Exploration with Daniel Tam-Claiborne

    Daniel Tam-Claiborne recently appeared at Mac’s Backs Books in Cleveland to discuss his debut novel, Transplants, which surrounds a Chinese college student and a Chinese American teacher who find themselves uprooted in new lives and cultures. Tam-Claiborne sheds light on his inspiration and process, his philosophy on writing outside one’s own experience, the craft of a multi-POV novel, incorporating the real-life trajectory of COVID into his fictional world, exploring identity and belonging in his work, and, naturally, why self-delusion is an important part of the writing life.   This conversation was recorded during an in-person author event hosted by Mac’s Backs on November 18, 2025. Order Transplants from Mac’s Backs here.   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.

    53 min

  3. JAN 13

    The Art of Sports Journalism with Christine Brennan

    Sportswriter Christine Brennan discusses her latest book, On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports, including how she came to conceive, research, write, and publish the book as an instant New York Times bestseller in only a year. In addition to dissecting Caitlin Clark’s career and impact on the WNBA, Brennan also discusses her Toledo upbringing, the art of sports journalism, succeeding in a male-dominated field, the impact of Title IX, what it means when a biography is “unauthorized,” a preview of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan, and more.   Christine Brennan is an award-winning national sports columnist for USA Today, a commentator for CNN, ABC News, PBS NewsHour and NPR, a bestselling author, and a nationally known speaker. Named one of the country’s top 10 sports columnists three times by the Associated Press Sports Editors, she has covered the Olympic Games, both summer and winter, since 1984. She is the author of eight books, including Best Seat in the House, the only father-daughter memoir written by a sports journalist. Her latest book, On Her Game, is the bestselling 2025 portrait of basketball star Caitlin Clark. Visit christinebrennan.com and follow @cbrennansports on Instagram,  X, or Facebook for 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.

    1h 1m

  4. 12/30/2025

    Bloopers!

    We’re leaving 2025 on a note of failure, mishaps, and shame. That’s right: we have bloopers! Listen in to discover that Laura is incapable of saying the word “archivist,” she asks hopelessly clunky questions, she is completely unfamiliar with the 1991 action film Backdraft, she can’t recall the podcast introduction she’s said literally over 100 times, and she even gets popcorn stuck in her throat right before recording. Also, sometimes the lights go out, the wrong microphone is employed, recorders run low on battery power, and words like “iconography” and “ambiguity” rear their ugly heads. All this and more in our first (and perhaps only ever) bloopers episode.   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.

    13 min

  5. 12/16/2025

    NO NO NO NO NO NO: The Rejection Show

    It’s December, it gets dark in the afternoon, and it’s freezing here in Ohio…what better time to dive into the cheery topic of rejection? Better yet, how about a clip show of rejection goodies? LOL, you’re welcome! This mini episode features clips from seven guests who appeared on Page Count in 2025 and offered some rejection-related insights on everything from submission strategies to the importance of separating the business from the art, writing out of spite, persistence, and beyond. Plus, Laura shares her own rejection stats from 2025. So what are you waiting for? Dust off your cover letter, log into your Submittable account, and take a listen.   The following episodes were excerpted for this rejection extravaganza:   The Art of Editing with The Cincinnati Review Clicking Our Heels Three Times with Dr. Taylor Byas Experimental Fiction with Mary Grimm Page Count Live: Writing Toward Peace with Loung Ung Touring the Paul Laurence Dunbar House Librarians are Superheroes with Karen Henry Clark Speculative Fiction at the Columbus Book Festival   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.

    20 min

  6. 12/02/2025

    Holiday Gift Recommendations from Little Professor

    You’ve just been handed a rectangular-shaped gift with the telltale heft and size of a book. Who knows what worlds might be contained in that one little object? This holiday season, you can give that same gift of possibility by shopping at an independent bookstore—and Nick and Celeste Polsinelli, the owners of Little Professor Book Center in Athens, Ohio, have plenty of ideas to get you started. In this episode, Nick offers a range of recommendations, from picture books to epistolary novels to talking cats and beyond, to cover every book lover on your list no matter how eclectic their tastes.   Recommended books: How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Rebecca Green The Christmas Sweater by Jan Brett Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. by Abby White The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn The Girl and the Goddess by Nikita Gill A Time of Dread by John Gwynne (Of Blood and Bone series) The Millfield Mine Disaster by Ron W. Luce Enchanted Ground: The Spirit Room of Jonathan Koons by Sharon Hatfield A Place So Deep Inside America It Can't Be Seen by Kari Gunter-Seymour The Bear by Andrew Krivak Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice   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.

    24 min

  7. 11/18/2025

    Publishing a Debut Memoir with Tiffany Graham Charkosky

    Debut memoirist Tiffany Graham Charkosky discusses the story behind LIVING PROOF: How Love Defied Genetic Legacy, from the medical journey she embarked on after learning she carried a genetic mutation to the years she spent writing and revising the memoir before landing a book deal. Along the way, she also shares the challenges and joys of writing material that is deeply personal, the physical and emotional implications of genetic testing, finding the right structure for her story, searching for a literary agent, how she grappled with the issue of platform as a memoirist, the trajectory of her publishing journey, why Cleveland is such a great place for writers, and the magic of just showing up.   In this episode: Living Proof: How Love Defied Genetic Legacy Literary Cleveland Cleveland Public Library Query Critiques with Devon Halliday Lynch Syndrome Kenyon College “It’s Not as Bad as You Think” by Jane Friedman   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.

    54 min

  8. 11/04/2025

    Illuminating the Origins of the Tiffany Lamps with Sandra Nickel

    In her new picture book, Sandra Nickel reveals the true genius behind the iconic Tiffany stained glass lamp designs: Clara Driscoll, an Ohio-born artist who managed the “Tiffany Girls” in Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studio in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While Driscoll’s contributions went unrecognized for decades, we now know she was the artist behind the gorgeous dragonfly, wisteria, poppy, daffodil, and peony lampshade designs, among many others. Nickel shares Driscoll’s story in Making Light Bloom: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps alongside the luminous illustrations by Julie Paschkis.   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.

    42 min
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About

Page Count, presented by the Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library, features interviews with authors, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, publishing professionals, and literary advocates in and from the state of Ohio.

Information

  • Creator
    Ohio Center for the Book
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2022 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Page Count

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