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Show Notes
Page Count’s third season kicks off on May 21! Listen to snippets from just a few of our upcoming episodes featuring the following authors and experts:
- Amy Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Writer’ Digest, dips into the magazine’s archives to consider what has changed in the literary world—and what hasn’t—in the last 100 years.
- Jacqueline Woodson and Hanif Abdurraqib discuss their latest books, what it means to “make it” as a writer, and more during a conversation recorded at the 2024 Ohioana Book Festival.
- Dr. Jennifer Swartz-Levine of Lake Erie College discusses the prolific midcentury author Dawn Powell, whose work was nearly lost to history before experiencing a resurgence.
- Steven Andersson shares insights into humorist James Thurber’s life and work in a special episode featuring a tour of the Thurber House, which was led by Andersson and Leah Wharton, operations director.
- Guy Lamolinara, the head of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, discusses his Cleveland roots, the Center for the Book, the National Book Festival, and the enduring nature of books and reading.
Subscribe to Page Count wherever you get your podcasts to listen to these episodes and many more during our third season. The season debuts May 21 with Woodson and Abdurraqib’s episode; thereafter, a new episode drops every two weeks.
Photo Credits
- Amy Jones: Jason Hale Photography
- Jacqueline Woodson: Tiffany A. Bloomfield
- Hanif Abdurraqib: Megan Leigh Barnard
- James Thurber: Denyse B. Smith
Transcript
Amy Jones (00:02):
Writers still have the same needs a hundred years later. We still are looking for that perfect word to get across the exact feeling that we want.
Jacqueline Woodson (00:11):
For me, it's a way of making sense of the world and having some power in that world because, once you get the story on the page, I'm a little bit different than when I started writing it, and that growth is so important to me.
Hanif Abdurraqib (00:27):
There was a point where I lived in a storage unit. I had a mattress and a little lamp, and that was all I had, and I wrote, because you couldn't really make noise cause you're not like supposed to live in storage units. It was something I could do quietly. And so for me that was very literally surviving. To say, I am writing as a bridge to get from one day to the next.
Dr. Jennifer Swartz-Levine (00:49):
She said, "I arrived at Lake Erie College in September of 1914 with the delirious sensation of having been shot from a cannon into a strange and wonderful planet." That's something about Dawn Powell novels that I enjoy. Just across the board, there's always a sense of hope and moving towards the future.
Steve Andersson (01:08):
James Thurber was one of America's greatest humorists and cartoonists. He's right up there with Mark Twain. The last 10 years of his life, he was blind. He could not draw anymore. He dictated his stories. He said, very famously, that the imagination never goes blind.
Guy Lamolinara (01:28):
When you go to the National Book Festival and you see thousands of people, they're there because they love books. People are interested in books and authors, and I think they always will be.
Laura Maylene Walter (01:41):
All this and more on Season Three of Page Count, which premieres May 21, 2024. Our first episode will feature my conversation with Jacqueline Woodson and Hanif Abdurraqib, so subscribe to Page Count and stay tuned for Season Three.
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