Brews & Prose Turns 3 with Mary Norris and Paula McLain

Photo by Josef Astor

Author Mary Norris has a deep appreciation for the tools of her trade. "The part I enjoyed most was writing about pencils," says Norris, referring to a chapter that recounts a beloved visit to Ohio's Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum in her new book, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen. Currently a query proofreader for The New Yorker with decades of experience, the Cleveland native returns Tuesday, July 7 for the third anniversary of Brews & Prose at 7 p.m. at Market Garden Brewery. Norris will read excerpts from her first book, Comma Queen, which combines grammar expertise with quirky tales from the halls of The New Yorker. Norris is joined by The Paris Wife author Paula McLain, a local who is releasing Circling the Sun at the end of this month, at the reading series we named Best of Cleveland in 2013. We chat with Norris about her authorial debut and what's on tap for her return to Cleveland.

Q: What was it like writing your first book?
A: What made the book difficult was that I did not at first understand that the proposal for the book was not the blueprint for the book. ... And so I wrote a lot about The New Yorker thinking that's what the publisher wanted, what the editor wanted. And in fact, he wanted something that was broader than The New Yorker audience for the book. So he kept having to tell me to broaden it out, and I kept having to fall back on the fact that, that was my experience.

Q: How did you handle the different reactions to your book?

A: Certainly for reasons of publicity, any review is a good review. You know I mean if it appears anywhere, then at least it's getting noticed and that's good. So I didn't quibble with anything anybody wrote. And you know, maybe I should have because the people who like this kind of thing love to quibble.

Q: As a Cleveland native coming back to the city, what are you looking forward to about the event?
A: Well, I am looking forward to being on the West Side in a venue that is well-established there and now. I'm very flattered to be on a bill with Paula McLain, whose book I'm reading right now. And, and I like it also that the people who run Brews & Prose are young and they're not like old-school connections of mine. Although I hope a few of my old-school connections will be at the event, I feel like I'm also reaching a new audience in Cleveland — people that I've never met before and who didn't go to high school with me. So that's exciting to me. I'm also looking forward to drinking some of the beer.

Market Garden Brewery raises the bar on lit readings

The wall-to-wall crowd at the one-year anniversary celebration of Market Garden Brewery’s monthly Brews + Prose reading series got a special treat last night: a reading from Pulitzer-Prize winning author and journalist Connie Schultz’s forthcoming novel (scheduled to be released fall 2014).

Schultz read a chapter focusing on a teenage girl growing up in a working class family during the late '60s in a fictional Ohio town while perched at a podium in front of an exposed brick fireplace in the basement of the Ohio City brewery.

One nugget that elicited a collective sigh from the crowd: “Allie looked at her daughter and saw God’s second thoughts.”

The reading was cut short when Schultz realized she lost the second-to-last page. But fellow writer and presenter Michael Ruhlman, along with a cheering audience and Schultz's husband U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, encouraged her to keep going. Schultz pressed on.The crowd of writers, beer drinkers and fans of spoken word received her reading with warm applause.

The free series brings writers out of the bookstore or library and into the brewery for lit readings that feel more relaxed, more genuine. Plus, organizers argue literature is better enjoyed while throwing back a few drinks.

“They’re here because they love the city, they’re here because they love literature and maybe because they love alcohol,” event co-founder Dave Lucas quipped about the crowd.

Jokes aside, the series has become a respected outlet for writers to connect with an audience that may not have come across their work in this way before. Two writers, essayists, journalists, playwrights, novelists or poets read every month. Past speakers include George Bilgere, Michael Heaton and Paula McLain.

“We believe Cleveland is a great place that deserves great literature and deserves a great venue for it,” Lucas said. He added that the series helps show the literary community that Cleveland supports them and can be as great a place for writing as big cities such as New York or Chicago.

Ruhlman agreed the series is an excellent way for the public to have access to prose.

“What a great venue ... the fireplace, the beer, the energy in the room ... it's just fabulous,” Ruhlman said. “We become so isolated by our lives behind our computers that community events like this really, really mean a lot."

Ruhlman read from both his digital works such as posts from his food blog, Ruhlman.com and one of his many traditional print books, Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America.

A snippet from one blog post, titled "The Fallacy of 'Follow Your Passion'" proved that Ruhlman, although known as a food writer, can write about more.

“Everyone has the capacity for passion built into them," he read. "It’s part of being human. You need to set yourself up to receive inspiration. Be ready to let inspiration flood into you.”

The series will continue next month on Aug. 6 with Akron author and journalist, David Giffels and author Alissa Nutting, whose steamy novel Tampa was just released Tuesday. Cleveland Magazine contributing writer Laura Taxel, will speak in October.

Schultz is a frequent contributor to Cleveland Magazine. Most recently, she's written essays on changes to GED testing, threats to Ohio's unions and revising our city's story.