Noir at the Bar – Cleveland Authors

Reading & Book Signing

 
 
 
 

Doors open at 6:00pm, with the storytelling beginning promptly at 8:00pm

• Weekly series combining great food with great stories about Cleveland’s past
• FREE ADMISSION – NO COVER CHARGE
• In addition to our regular menu, a Prix Fixe 3-course dinner special is available for just $25
• Check back for tonight’s special
  

Story topic this week…

Noir at the Bar
Do you love twisted tales of murder, mystery, and mayhem? Grab a drink and take a walk on the dark side with us! Join us to hear a rockstar lineup of Cleveland authors tell gritty stories pulled from their published and unpublished work. Readers include J.D. Belcher, Angela Crook, Miesha Headen, Dana McSwain, Susan Petrone and D.M. Pulley.
 

Following the readings, we will have a large book market so you can meet the authors, purchase their latest books and get them signed!

J.D. Belcher

J.D. Belcher is an author, screenwriter, and journalist. He serves as editor for the online news publication the Yellow Party News and the daily devotional website Ephod and Breastplate. His debut memoir, Hades’ Melody, was longlisted for the 2019 Sante Fe Writers Project literary awards. The Inescapable Consequence, his first novel, was released by Yorkshire Publishing in the spring of 2021.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Angela Crook

Angela Crook lives in Shaker Hts., OH, with her artist son, and 3 crazy kitties. She served eleven years in the United States Air Force, where she spent three years in England, followed by eight years in Colorado Springs, Co. She is a proud member of a writer’s group of three other up-and-comers (the Literary Llamas) who meet once a month to critique, encourage, and revel in the pursuit of literary greatness and wine. She has 3 self-published novels, Fat Chance, Chasing Navah, and Maria’s Song, and has a short story, “Bitter,” featured in the anthology, Cleveland Noir. Her debut traditionally published novel, Hurt Mountain., was released March 1, 2024.
 
 
 
 
 

Miesha Wilson Headen

Miesha Wilson Headen is a writer and bookseller who has been awarded the Best Minority Issues Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, a BINC Bookseller Activist Award, and a CLE AKR Informed Communities Award from the Cleveland Foundation. She is the former mayor of Richmond Heights, Ohio, where she lives with her husband and two sons. She graduated from Columbia University and Ursuline College. She is a preacher’s kid.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dana McSwain

Dana McSwain is the author of Roseneath, the award-winning Gothic horror novel set in Cleveland. McSwain is also the author of Winter’s Gambit and Winter’s Roulette, the cult-favorite action-adventure series set in the Rust Belt. Her essays have been published in Belt Magazine, Literary Cleveland, The Authority, Atherton Review, and 2024’s Connecticut Literary Anthology. McSwain’s workshop, Sparking Creativity by Exploring Liminal Space, is taught as part of a graduate level course at GVSU and through the William N. Skirball Writer’s Center. A native of Cleveland and a graduate of Kent State University, she lives over the river and through the woods with her family and a tempest of poodles.
 
 
 
 

Susan Petrone

Susan Petrone is the author of The Musical Mozinskis as well as The Heebie-Jeebie Girl, The Super Ladies, Throw Like a Woman, and A Body at Rest. She received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and her writing has appeared in such diverse publications as Glimmer Train, ESPN.com, Belt Magazine, and Whiskey Island. She is also one of the cofounders and former president of Literary Cleveland.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

D.M. Pulley

D.M. Pulley is a best-selling author who previously worked as a professional engineer rehabbing historic structures
and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. Her survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired her debut novel The Dead Key, winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Pulley has published three more novels inspired by true crime in the Rust Belt, including No One’s Home, named Best of Horror 2019 by Suspense Magazine.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The goal of the Cleveland Stories Dinner Party is to bring to life some of the fun, interesting stories about Cleveland’s past – from sports, to rock ‘n roll, to Millionaire’s Row, — the series will focus on tidbits from Cleveland’s past that will really thrill the audience. The Music Box is presenting this series in partnership with the Western Reserve Historical Society’s new Cleveland History Center. We think the Cleveland History Center is one of the most important museums in Cleveland. An unknown gem that Clevelanders should know more about, and support. It is the only museum in Cleveland dedicated to preserving and documenting the history of Cleveland. The Cleveland History Center includes two mansions, the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum, Chisholm Halle Costume Wing, Research Library, Kidzibits Hands-On Gallery, rotating exhibitions, and the Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel.
 

See all Cleveland Stories dates here.