Plum City Reading Series is Literary Cleveland's reading series bringing the country's most interesting and groundbreaking authors to Cleveland. Plum City aims to highlight the work of independent publishers while thoughtfully curating celebratory evenings of literature and community.
Join us for our final reading of the year celebrating new books by CWRU professor and novelist Caren Beilin (Sea, Poison), former AWBA Fellow poet Leila Chatti (Wildness Before Something Sublime), and Oberlin Visiting Assistant Professor Cleo Qian (LET’S GO LET’S GO LET’S GO).
This installment of the Plum City Reading Series will take place Wednesday, October 29 at Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere in Cleveland. Doors open at 6:30 and reading begins at 7pm to be immediately followed by an afterparty at the Literary Cleveland Offices (13002 Larchmere).
NOTE: In keeping with our mission, to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, the registration fee for this event is "Pay What You Can." We believe every writer, reader, storyteller, and literary enthusiast who wants to attend a Literary Cleveland event should be able to have that experience. "Pay What You Can" registration allows comfortable, affordable participation for everyone. We have suggested fees—you can pay one of them, or pay what you can. Your participation is the priority for us.
Caren Beilin is the author of the novel Sea, Poison (New Directions, 2025). Her previous books include Revenge of the Scapegoat (Dorothy, 2022)—winner of the Vermont Book Award for Fiction—Blackfishing the IUD (Wolfman Books, 2019), Spain (Rescue Press, 2018), The University of Pennsylvania (Noemi Press, 2014), and the chapbook Americans, Guests, or Us (Diagram/New Michigan Press, 2012). Some of these titles have been published abroad with The Last Books (Amsterdam) and los tres editores (Madrid). She lives in Cleveland and is an Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University.
Leila Chatti is a Tunisian-American poet and author of Wildness Before Something Sublime (Copper Canyon Press, 2025) and Deluge (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 Levis Reading Prize, the 2021 Luschei Prize for African Poetry, and longlisted for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award, as well as four chapbooks. Her honors include multiple Pushcart Prizes, grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and Cleveland State University, where she was the inaugural Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Publishing and Writing. Her poems appear in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, The Atlantic, POETRY, and elsewhere. She is a Provost Fellow at the University of Cincinnati and teaches in Pacific University’s M.F.A. program.
Cleo Qian is a queer fiction writer and poet. She is the author of the award-winning story collection LET’S GO LET’S GO LET’S GO (Tin House, 2023) and a 2024 National Poetry Series finalist. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in nearly thirty outlets including American Poetry Review, ZYZZYVA, The Sun, and The Massachusetts Review. She has been awarded residencies from the University of Notre Dame, Casa Snowapple, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. She was a 2024 MacDowell Fellow. She has taught creative writing at the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program, the Tin House Summer Workshop, and at Oberlin College.
This program is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Ohio Arts Council.
Plum City Reading Series is Literary Cleveland's reading series bringing the country's most interesting and groundbreaking authors to Cleveland. Plum City aims to highlight the work of independent publishers while thoughtfully curating celebratory evenings of literature and community.
Join us for our final reading of the year celebrating new books by CWRU professor and novelist Caren Beilin (Sea, Poison), former AWBA Fellow poet Leila Chatti (Wildness Before Something Sublime), and Oberlin Visiting Assistant Professor Cleo Qian (LET’S GO LET’S GO LET’S GO).
This installment of the Plum City Reading Series will take place Wednesday, October 29 at Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere in Cleveland. Doors open at 6:30 and reading begins at 7pm to be immediately followed by an afterparty at the Literary Cleveland Offices (13002 Larchmere).
NOTE: In keeping with our mission, to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, the registration fee for this event is "Pay What You Can." We believe every writer, reader, storyteller, and literary enthusiast who wants to attend a Literary Cleveland event should be able to have that experience. "Pay What You Can" registration allows comfortable, affordable participation for everyone. We have suggested fees—you can pay one of them, or pay what you can. Your participation is the priority for us.
Caren Beilin is the author of the novel Sea, Poison (New Directions, 2025). Her previous books include Revenge of the Scapegoat (Dorothy, 2022)—winner of the Vermont Book Award for Fiction—Blackfishing the IUD (Wolfman Books, 2019), Spain (Rescue Press, 2018), The University of Pennsylvania (Noemi Press, 2014), and the chapbook Americans, Guests, or Us (Diagram/New Michigan Press, 2012). Some of these titles have been published abroad with The Last Books (Amsterdam) and los tres editores (Madrid). She lives in Cleveland and is an Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University.
Leila Chatti is a Tunisian-American poet and author of Wildness Before Something Sublime (Copper Canyon Press, 2025) and Deluge (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 Levis Reading Prize, the 2021 Luschei Prize for African Poetry, and longlisted for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award, as well as four chapbooks. Her honors include multiple Pushcart Prizes, grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and Cleveland State University, where she was the inaugural Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Publishing and Writing. Her poems appear in The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, The Atlantic, POETRY, and elsewhere. She is a Provost Fellow at the University of Cincinnati and teaches in Pacific University’s M.F.A. program.
Cleo Qian is a queer fiction writer and poet. She is the author of the award-winning story collection LET’S GO LET’S GO LET’S GO (Tin House, 2023) and a 2024 National Poetry Series finalist. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in nearly thirty outlets including American Poetry Review, ZYZZYVA, The Sun, and The Massachusetts Review. She has been awarded residencies from the University of Notre Dame, Casa Snowapple, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. She was a 2024 MacDowell Fellow. She has taught creative writing at the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program, the Tin House Summer Workshop, and at Oberlin College.
This program is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Ohio Arts Council.
