Page Count

In the original episode, Brian Schoen, Ph. D., and Timothy G. Anderson, Ph. D., the editors of Settling Ohio: First Peoples and Beyond, discussed Ohio’s history, the inspiration for, and the genesis of Settling Ohio. 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 Fe...

Dr. Valentino Zullo explores the Cleveland-created superhero’s origin story in honor of Superman’s 85th birthday. Dr. Zullo and Laura discuss some of the first-ever Superman comics; Superman’s early focus on fighting social inequities vs. super villains; how creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster came to dream up the famous superhero; and more.   Since the original episode aired, Superman has come...

This summer, Page Count is settling down with a good beach read to take a hiatus—which means we’ll be bringing you some select episodes from our extensive backlist, complete with new introductions. First up is one of the first episodes ever produced by Page Count: The Ohio Literary Trail. Follow along as David Weaver, the former executive director of the Ohioana Library Association , and Betty Wei...

Page Count is pleased to share an episode of PASSAGES: On Morrison , a new podcast that follows Namwali Serpell on her book tour for ON MORRISON . This episode takes us to Columbus, Ohio, where Serpell was joined by Hanif Abdurraqib in the Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison kickoff event to read and discuss the end of SONG OF SOLOMON. Serpell and Abdurraqib discuss this final passage, the challenges of...

It’s a podcast takeover! Five young writers—Moriah, Malikye, Victoria, Jordan, and Wilma—share poems and a story excerpt, all of which are about to be published in Lake Erie Ink’s 10th annual Teen Book Project . This year’s anthology is titled Lights, Camera, Action, a theme that speaks, in part, to the phenomenon of feeling seen in an online world.   To view the art and read all the writing in th...

Andre Norton is one of the pivotal figures in the history of science fiction and fantasy and remains eminently relevant for modern readers. She was a prolific writer, authoring more than 300 titles spanning a career from the 1930s to the 2000s. She was one of the earliest writers to create stories of a post-nuclear apocalyptic dystopia and works of post-humanism yet kept a thread of hope and optim...

In this supernatural spectacular, Laura is joined by her spouse, Peter, for an overnight ghost-hunting expedition at the Thurber House in Columbus. Do they experience any paranormal phenomena? Do they resurrect hazy, decades-old memories of the film Ghost? Do they demonstrate a stunning lack of knowledge about everything from religious philosophy on ghosts to Star Wars, the mechanics of night visi...

Laura sits down with Tiffany Graham Charkosky, Director of Arts and Culture at Cleveland Public Library, to recap the 2026 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Baltimore in early March. From exploring the bookfair, meeting up with writing friends, attending panels and offsite readings, pushing their social batteries to the limit, and more, they get into it all. Come fo...

Grab your ginger ale, your hockey pucks, and your intense sense of longing, because we’re heading to the cottage. Cleveland author Sonia Feldman joins us to discuss the Heated Rivalry phenomenon—the hit show and its cultural impact, the art of adapting romance novels, and what it means to be girls who love boys who love boys. We also turn to another form of queer love found in Feldman’s forthcomin...

Welcome to the dark world of horror author Tracy Cross! In this episode, Cross discusses her Conjure series trilogy, which follows a young girl developing into a powerful Hoodoo practitioner in Louisiana in the late 1800s. In the process, Cross sheds light on the practice of Hoodoo, why she was drawn to writing about this time period and setting, her research process, how Black writers are reclaim...

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 rerunni...

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, incorporati...

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 journalis...

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...

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 importa...

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. I...

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...

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, wis...

For our 100th episode, we’re traveling back in time: to 1915, the setting of Dan Chaon’s latest novel, One of Us, and to September 13, 2025, when this conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at the Literary Cleveland Inkubator Writing Conference. While using his new novel as an example, Chaon discusses the craft of fiction, including voice, setting, point of view, characterization, l...

Cleveland-based children’s book author Tricia Springstubb takes listeners on an adventure through the wilderness via The Wild Robot—how her granddaughter introduced her to Peter Brown’s story, why she loves the novel, and her thoughts on the film adaptation—before discussing her own writing journey. She shares how she came to publish thirteen books since 2010; why she loves writing for young peopl...

Listeners, you’re about to slip through a portal to arrive at the 2025 Columbus Book Festival, where Megan Giddings, Ruben Reyes Jr., and Edward Underhill discussed the ins and outs of speculative fiction: why they write it, why they love it, and the challenges and opportunities the genre presents. We’ve got mysterious doors opening to unknown lands, alternate realties, time slips, and plenty of a...

Lisa Ampleman, Managing Editor of The Cincinnati Review , offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into a literary magazine’s submission review process. By using one poem and one short story recently published in the print journal as examples, she reveals what might catch an editor’s eye in the submission queue, how the editing process unfolded after acceptance, and what kind of changes the authors made...

Julie K. Rubini discusses her biography for young readers, Virginia Hamilton: America’s Storyteller, which surrounds one of the most honored American children’s book authors of all time. Rubini sheds light on Virginia Hamilton’s life and work, including Hamilton’s childhood in Yellow Springs, Ohio; her early literary ambitions; the professors at Antioch College and The Ohio State University who ga...

This episode celebrates poetry, local voices, parks, biodiversity, and the art of paying attention to the natural world around us. Carrie George and Charles Malone, two co-editors of Light Enters the Grove: Exploring Cuyahoga National Park through Poetry, share how this literary field guide focusing on the plants, animals, and birds found within CVNP came together. From assigning writers species a...

From the songs of Taylor Swift to the skate parks of the Midwest, not to mention pep talks for writers and a guide to Columbus hot spots, this episode has something for everyone. Recorded during a panel discussion at the 2025 Ohioana Book Festival, authors Annie Zaleski, Mandy Shunnarah, Maggie Smith, and Shawnie Kelley discuss the art of nonfiction, including their research, writing, and publishi...