''Storybound'' is a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
created, produced, and hosted by
Jude Brewer, with original music composed for each episode. The show is a collaboration between ''
Lit Hub
Literary Hub is a daily literary website that launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter.
Con ...
'' and The Podglomerate podcast network, featuring household names and Pulitzer Prize winning authors alongside relatively unknown bands, singer-songwriters, and composers. Season 1 debuted on December 3, 2019. Inspired from Brewer's ''
Storytellers Telling Stories'', ''Storybound'' surpassed a million downloads in its first year, following up with seasons 2 and 3, the latter of which has been recognized for experimental
cross-genre
A hybrid genre is a literary genre that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. Works in hybrid genres are often referred to as cross-genre, multi-genre, mixed genre, or fusion genre.
Hybrid genres are a longstanding element ...
music compositions with
sampling created and arranged by Brewer.
Series overview
Regarding the crafting of each episode, Brewer likened the relationship between literature and music as the conceptual evolution of a live reading, also adding how "beats or time signatures or chord progressions" allow listeners to feel a story's forward progression: "There's something subtle in your mind telling you, 'I'm going to get past this moment.'"
''Storybound'' is noted for pairing award-winning and bestselling writers with comparatively unknown musicians, an idea spun out of Brewer's initial conception for ''Storytellers Telling Stories''. Brewer had alluded to an uncertain future for ''Storytellers Telling Stories'' in as early as February 2019. ''Storybound'' was announced later that year at a live performance for the
Literary Arts
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to includ ...
Portland Book Festival pre-show, Lit Crawl, where they also announced their sponsorship with
Powell's Books.
Season 1 included critically acclaimed and bestselling authors such as
Mitch Albom
Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, and musician. His books have sold over 40 million copies worldwide. Having achieved national recognition for sports writing in his early career, he turned to writing the ...
,
Lidia Yuknavitch
Lidia Yuknavitch ( ; born June 18, 1963) is an American writer, teacher and editor based in Oregon. She is the author of the memoir ''The Chronology of Water'', and the novels ''The Small Backs of Children,'' '' Dora: A Headcase,'' and ''The Bo ...
,
Matt Gallagher,
Kim Barnes,
Adelle Waldman,
Diksha Basu
Diksha Basu is an American writer and actress. She is the author of the critically acclaimed novel ''The Windfall'' which is under adaptation for a television series by Shonali Bose.
Biography
Diksha Basu was born in Delhi, to the sociologist ...
,
Nathan Hill,
Caitlin Doughty
Caitlin Marie Doughty (born August 19, 1984) is an American mortician, author, blogger, YouTube personality, and advocate for death acceptance and the reform of Western funeral industry practices. She is the owner of Clarity Funerals and Cre ...
,
Mitchell S. Jackson as well as a story told by Jack Rhysider, creator of the popular podcast ''
Darknet Diaries
''Darknet Diaries'' is an investigative podcast created by Jack Rhysider (), chronicling true stories about crackers, malware, botnets, cryptography, cryptocurrency, cybercrime, and Internet privacy, all subjects falling under the umbrella of " ...
''. Seasons 2 and 3 continued this trend, expanding outside of its primary
literary
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to includ ...
/
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...
focus, featuring
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
author
Charlie Jane Anders
Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer and commentator. She has written several novels, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, ...
, essayist
Soraya Nadia McDonald, comic book writer
Mark Russell, fiction writer
Junot Díaz
Junot Díaz (; born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was fiction editor at ''Boston Review''. He also serves on the board of advisers for Freedo ...
, and Pulitzer Prize winning critic, Soraya Nadia McDonald.
Along with authors such as
Chuck Klosterman
Charles John Klosterman (; born 1972) is an American author and essayist whose work focuses on American popular culture. He has been a columnist for ''Esquire'' and ESPN.com and wrote "The Ethicist" column for ''The New York Times Magazine''. ...
,
Morgan Jerkins,
Omar El Akkad,
Matt Haig
Matt Haig (born 3 July 1975) is an English author and journalist. He has written both fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults, often in the speculative fiction genre.
Early life
Haig was born on 3 July 1975 in Sheffield. He went ...
, and
Tamara Winfrey Harris. Season 4 features more prominent musicians such as
Portico Quartet,
Dustin O'Halloran
Dustin O'Halloran (born September 8, 1971) is an American composer and pianist. Aside from releasing music as a recording artist, O'Halloran is a film and TV composer, as well as one half of ambient act A Winged Victory for the Sullen.
Early l ...
,
Ben Folds
Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer, who is the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., since May 2017. Folds was ...
,
Jaymay
Jamie Seerman is an American singer-songwriter from New York. She performs under the name Jaymay.
Early life
Jaymay was born Jamie Seerman on January 3, 1981, and was raised on Long Island. For undergrad, she studied at New College of Florida, ...
,
Au Revoir Simone,
Fake Shark,
Zola Jesus
Nika Roza Danilova (born Nicole Rose Hummel; April 11, 1989), known professionally by her stage name Zola Jesus, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her music has been noted for combining elements of electronic, industrial, c ...
,
The Bright Light Social Hour
The Bright Light Social Hour is an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas. The band is composed of Jackie O'Brien on bass and vocals, Curtis Roush on guitar and vocals, Zac Catanzaro on drums, Mia Carruthers on keys and vocals, and Jua ...
, and
Shook Twins. Season 4 also includes a unique episode officially funded by a grant from the
Regional Arts & Culture Council. The episode is a
radio drama
Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...
adaptation of playwright and screenwriter Brianna Barrett's
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ...
television pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other dis ...
based on the life of
Frances Fuller Victor
Frances Auretta Fuller (Barritt) Victor ( pen names: Florence Fane, Dorothy D.) (May 23, 1826 – November 14, 1902) was an American historian and historical novelist. She has been described as "the first Oregon historian to gain regional and nat ...
, an American historian and novelist living in
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...
era
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
Season 5 was announced for 2022, bringing on
Debbie Millman, Danté Stewart,
Stephanie Foo
Stephanie Foo (born 1987) is a Malaysia-born American radio journalist, producer and author. She has worked for ''Snap Judgment'' and ''This American Life''. In 2022, she published ''What My Bones Know'', a memoir about healing from complex PT ...
,
Tommy Davidson
Thomas Davidson (born November 10, 1963) is an American comedian and actor. He was an original cast member on the sketch comedy TV show ''In Living Color'', Mitchell on ''Between Brothers'' (1997-1999), Dexter on ''Malcolm & Eddie'' (1999-2000) ...
,
Dan Chaon,
Imogen Binnie,
Daniel Olivas
Daniel Anthony Olivas (born April 8, 1959, in Los Angeles, California) is an American author and attorney.
Biography
Daniel Olivas was raised near downtown Los Angeles, the middle of five children and the grandson of Mexican immigrants. He at ...
and more.
Production
Each episode begins with an introduction from Brewer, followed by a
lofi theme or, as Brewer has likened it, "bedroom-pop". Following Brewer's introduction, the featured author will read an