Page Count

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

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

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.

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook

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

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

To celebrate the publication of her new story collection, The Last Catastrophe, Allegra Hyde discusses climate fiction, the concept of “global weirding,” the inspiration behind her speculative premises, the value of literary magazine publication, her revision process, what it was like to appear on a late-night show to discuss her debut novel, literary agents for short fiction writers, her writing process for novels vs. stories, creating art at the end of the world, and more.

Allegra Hyde is the author of Eleutheria, which was named a “Best Book of 2022” by The New Yorker. She is also the author of the story collection, Of This New World, which won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Her second story collection, The Last Catastrophe, was published in March 2023 by Vintage. A recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, Hyde’s writing has also been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. She currently teaches at Oberlin College.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Oberlin College

Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

Mid-American Review (MAR) Editor-in-Chief Abigail Cloud and Poetry Editor Megan Borocki shed light on the literary magazine landscape, especially for poets. Cloud and Borocki discuss what kind of work MAR publishes, their editorial approach and process, trends they see in the submission queue, submission tips, preferred fonts (spoiler: poets love Garamond), their perspective on cover letters, the realities of rejection, and more. They also critique three poems submitted to Page Count by Ohio writers.

Learn more about Mid-American Review online follow the journal on Twitter. Finally, Page Count extends special thanks to Sara Shearer, Carole Mertz, and a third, unnamed poet for submitting their poems for this episode.

Abigail Cloud is editor-in-chief of Mid-American Review and a teaching professor at Bowling Green State University, from which she holds an MFA. Her first collection, Sylph, was published by Pleaides Press in 2014.

Megan Borocki (they/them) has an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University. They are poetry editor for Mid-American Review. Their work has recently appeared in Moon City Review, Olney, and The Hunger.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Sylph by Abigail Cloud

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

Prince Shakur discusses his debut memoir, When They Tell You to Be Good, a political and personal exploration of his coming of age as a writer and activist. Shakur shares how race and identity shaped his formative years, how journaling providing him with a creative outlet, his experience with activism and protest, his approach to writing about family, how he incorporated research into the memoir, the challenges he faced in the publishing industry, working with Hanif Abdurraqib as his editor at Tin House Books, and more.

Learn more about Prince Shakur at his website and YouTube channel.

Mentioned in this episode:

• When They Tell You to Be Good by Prince Shakur

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis discusses the challenges and joys of writing love poems while sharing the creative process behind “The Goddess of Interracial Dating,” which appears in her collection A MORE PERFECT UNION. She also discusses the value of writing groups and residencies, literary magazine submission strategies, the art of persona poems, making her own superheroes, returning to her writing self after having children, and more.

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of A MORE PERFECT UNION, winner of the 2019 Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize (Mad Creek Books, 2021) and HAINT (Gival Press, 2016), winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is the poetry coordinator for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Learn more by visiting poetsandparents.com.

Mentioned in this episode:

• “My Beloved” by Charles Simic

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 [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.