Author and illustrator Julia Kuo discusses her picture book Luminous: Living Things That Light Up the Night, which won the 2024 Floyd’s Pick Book Award. She shines a light on bioluminescence, the mysteries of the open ocean, squids and glowworms and jellyfish, illustration career paths, her journey to becoming an author, and the art of making our own light.

Julia Kuo is the author and illustrator of Let’s Do Everything and Nothing and Luminous. She is the illustrator of many picture and specialty books, including The Next Scientist, When Love Is More Than Words, and the bestselling Rise. Julia has created editorial illustrations for publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. She has taught at Columbia College Chicago and at her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. Julia has been an artist-in-residence twice at the Banff Centre for the Arts and a 2019-2021 fellow with the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago.

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, Twitter, or Facebook.

Halloween is right around the corner, so grab your pumpkin spice lattes and join us as we explore Ohio’s cemeteries with Ian Adams, Randall Lee Schieber, and Robin L. Smith, the photographers and author, respectively, of This Place of Silence: Ohio’s Cemeteries and Burial Grounds. Our guests discuss the process of photographing and writing about cemeteries in every county in Ohio, cemetery art and architecture, the history and evolution of the American cemetery, unique gravestones and monuments, famous figures put to rest in Ohio’s burial sites, the literary inspiration behind the book’s title, and a lot more.

Ian Adams has twenty-one photography books and more than sixty-five Ohio calendars to his credit. He conducts nature and garden photography seminars, workshops, and slide programs throughout North America and taught digital photography at Ohio State University’s Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster from 2010 to 2019.

Randall Lee Schieber is a professional photographer based in Columbus, Ohio. He specializes in editorial, architectural, location, and travel photography and has published eight books and fifteen calendars. His work has appeared in a variety of local and national publications.

Robin L. Smith is the research director at Columbus Business First newspaper. She is the coauthor (with Randall Lee Schieber) of Columbus: A Photographic Portrait and Ohio: Then and Now, and the author of Columbus Ghosts: Historical Haunts of Ohio’s Capital and Columbus Ghosts II: More Central Ohio Haunts.

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, Twitter, or Facebook.

Page Count hit the road in July to record a panel interview with authors and podcasters Rob Harvilla, Libby Kay, and Alex Rowland in front of a live audience at the Columbus Book Festival. Listen in as Rob, Libby, and Alex discuss their work, offer tips for other writers and podcasters, define “podcast princess,” share mistakes and lessons learned, reveal why the Columbus Book Festival was one of their favorite events, and encourage writers to aspire to be cockroaches. Yes, cockroaches. Also, Laura explains how she messed up the original event recording and had to fix her mistakes, so that’s fun!

Rob Harvilla is the host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the '90s, the author of the book of the same name, and a senior staff writer at The Ringer. He recently debuted the next iteration of his podcast, 60 Songs That Explain the '90s: The 2000s.

Libby Kay is an author of romance novels, including the Buckeye Falls series. The most recent novel in this series is Forever to Fall; she promoted Faking the Fall at the Columbus Book Festival. Libby cohosts the Romance Roundup podcast with Liz Donatelli.

Alexandra Rowland is the author of fantasy books, including A Taste of Gold and Iron and A Conspiracy of Truths, among others. Alex’s latest novel is Yield Under Great Persuasion; they promoted Running Close to the Wind at the Columbus Book Festival. Alex was a four-time Hugo Award-nominated podcaster as a cohost of Be the Serpent.

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, Twitter, or Facebook.