Noir at the Bar – Cleveland Authors

Reading & Book Signing

 
 
 
 

Doors open at 5:00pm, with the storytelling beginning promptly at 7:00pm

• Weekly series combining great food with great stories about Cleveland’s past
• FREE ADMISSION – NO COVER CHARGE
• Prix Fixe 3-course dinner option just $25
• Check back for this week’s menu:
  

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 Join us to hear a rockstar lineup of Cleveland authors tell gritty stories pulled from their published and unpublished work.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, Mary Grimm, Miesha Wilson Headen, Paula McLain, Dana McSwain, Susan Petrone, D.M. Pulley, Michael Ruhlman, Thrity Umrigar and Abby L Vandiver.
 

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 is the author of three novels: Fat Chance, Chasing Navah, and Maria’s Song. She is a mother from Cleveland who loves writing dark thrillers that often involve the exploration of the inner workings of family relationships.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mary Grimm

Mary Grimm has had two books published, Left to Themselves and Stealing Time. Her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Antioch Review, and Mississippi Review, and her flash fiction in places like Helen, Berlin Fiction Kitchen, and Tiferet. Currently, she is working on a historical novel set in 1930s Cleveland. She teaches fiction writing at Case Western Reserve University.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Paula McLain

Paula McLain is the New York Times best-selling author of five novels, including The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun, and When the Stars Go Dark. Her work has appeared in Town & Country, Real Simple, O, the Oprah Magazine, the Guardian, the New York Times, and elsewhere. McLain is also the author of the memoir Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses and two collections of poetry. She lives in Cleveland
with her family.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dana McSwain

Dana McSwain is the author of Roseneath, winner of four national independent press awards. Her previous books include Winter’s Gambit and Winter’s Roulette, a cult-favorite action-adventure series set in the Rust Belt. Her essays have been published in Belt Magazine and the Atherton Review. A native of Cleveland and a graduate of Kent State University, she divides her time between the Midwest and New England.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Susan Petrone

Susan Petrone is the author of the forthcoming novel 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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Michael Ruhlman

Michael Ruhlman has written or coauthored more than twenty-five books of nonfiction, fiction, memoir, and cookbooks, including Boys Themselves and Walk on Water, both set in Cleveland. A native of Shaker Heights, he lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and New York City with his wife, the writer Ann Hood.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thrity Umrigar

Thrity Umrigar is the author of nine novels, including the best sellers The Space Between Us and Honor, a Reese Book Club pick. Her books have been published in over fifteen countries. She is the recipient of a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, the winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN Beyond Margins Award. She is a Distinguished University Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University and lives in Cleveland Heights.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Abby L Vandiver

Abby L Vandiver also writing as Abby Collette and Cade Bentley, is a hybrid author who has penned more than
thirty books and short stories. She has hit both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best seller lists. Vandiver spends her time writing cozy mysteries and women’s fiction, as well as facilitating writing workshops at local libraries and hanging out with her grandchildren, each of whom are her favorite.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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.