Page Count

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

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

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

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:

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

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:

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

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:

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

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

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, language, research, revision, and more. From disturbing clowns to ax-wielding sociopaths, telepathic twins, orphan trains, and beyond, this conversation has it all, so step right up and enjoy our 100th episode.

Dan Chaon is the author of Ill Will, a national bestseller that was named one of the ten best books of the year by Publishers Weekly; the short story collection Stay Awake, a finalist for the Story Prize; the national bestseller Await Your Reply; and Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award. His newest novel, One of Us, was published in September 2025 by Henry Holt and Co. Chaon lives in Cleveland. Author photo credit: Géraldine Aresteanu

If you’ve read this far, that means you’re clearly one of us. Say it with me: One of us! One of us! One of us!

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

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 people; the inspiration behind her latest novel, How to Tell a True Story; how she came to write in the new genre “young teen lit;” and more.

Books by Tricia Springstubb:

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

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 additional oddities, so step into that portal and don’t you dare look back.

Megan Giddings, the author of the novels Lakewood, The Women Could Fly, and, most recently, Meet Me at the Crossroads. Her story collection, Black Arts, is forthcoming in 2026. She is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.

Ruben Reyes, Jr. is the author of the short story collection There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven and, most recently, the novel Archive of Unknown Universes. Originally from Southern California, he now lives in Brooklyn.

Edward Underhill is the author of the young adult novels Always the Almost, This Day Changes Everything, and In Case You Read This. His latest novel is his first for adults, The In-Between Bookstore. He grew up in Wisconsin and currently resides in California.

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