''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 Jude Brewer is an American writer, producer, actor, and podcast host, best known for creating and hosting '' Storybound'' and ''Storytellers Telling Stories''. Brewer's writing has appeared internationally through literary magazines, and most re ...

, 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. Cont ...

'' 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 ''Storytellers Telling Stories'' is an episodic podcast created and hosted by writer and showrunner Jude Brewer, harkening back to the Golden Age of Radio as a "theatre of the mind" experience with writers, actors, and musicians. Consolidated in ...

'', ''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 include o ...

Portland Book Festival pre-show, Lit Crawl, where they also announced their sponsorship with

Powell's Books Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in Portland, Oregon, and its surrounding metropolitan area. Powell's headquarters, dubbed Powell's City of Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Powell's City of ...

. 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 Boo ...

, Matt Gallagher,

Kim Barnes Kim Barnes (born 1958 Lewiston, Idaho) is a contemporary American author of fiction, memoir, and personal essays. She served as Poet Laureate of Idaho. Life She returned with her mother to their logging camp on Orofino Creek in the Clearwater ...

, 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 Cremat ...

Mitchell S. Jackson Mitchell S. Jackson is an American writer. He is the author of the 2013 novel ''The Residue Years'', as well as ''Oversoul'' (2012), an ebook collection of essays and short stories. Jackson is a Whiting Award recipient and a former winner of the ...

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 Writing, 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 ...

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 autobi ...

focus, featuring

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

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, t ...

, essayist

Soraya Nadia McDonald Soraya Nadia McDonald is an American writer and culture critic. She was previously a reporter at ''The Washington Post'', and has been the culture critic for '' The Undefeated'' since 2016. McDonald was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for ...

, comic book writer

Mark Russell Mark Russell (born August 23, 1932) is an American political satirist and comedian. He is best known for his series of semimonthly comedy specials on PBS television between 1975 and 2004. His routines were a mix of political stand-up humor cover ...

, 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''. K ...

Morgan Jerkins Morgan Jerkins (born 1992) is an American writer and editor. Her debut book, ''This Will Be My Undoing'' (2018), a collection of nonfiction essays, was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. Her second book, ''Wandering in Strange Lands'', was released ...

Omar El Akkad Omar El Akkad (born 1982) is an Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist, whose novel '' What Strange Paradise'' was the winner of the 2021 Giller Prize. Early life and education Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt, and grew up in Doha, Qa ...

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 Portico Quartet are an instrumental band from London, UK. They are known for their use of the hang, a modern percussion instrument. Their debut album, ''Knee-Deep in the North Sea'', was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize and was '' Time Out� ...

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 ...

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 th ...

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 Flori ...

Au Revoir Simone Au Revoir Simone is an American indie pop band from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2003. The group is composed of Erika Forster (vocals/keyboard), Annie Hart (vocals/keyboard/bass) and Heather D'Angelo (vocals/drum machine/keyboard ...

Fake Shark Fake Shark (formerly known as Fake Shark – Real Zombie!) is a Canadian electronic indie-pop band from Vancouver, British Columbia. Formed in 2005, their early musical style mainly combined elements of dance punk and IDM but have since shifted ...

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, ...

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 Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is an organization that administers arts grants in Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas Counties that also do advocacy in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It evolved from the city� ...

. 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 ty ...

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 distri ...

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 policies ...

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 Debbie Millman is an American writer, educator, artist, curator, and designer who is best known as the host of the podcast '' Design Matters''. She has authored six books and is the President Emeritus of the American Institute of Graphic Arts ...

, Danté Stewart, Stephanie Foo,

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

excerpt {{Short pages monitor