Robert Jones Jr. reads from his debut novel "The Prophets", with sound design and music composition from Josh Garrels. Robert Jones, Jr. is a writer from New York City. He received his B.F.A., magna cum laude, in creative writing, and M.F.A. in fiction from Brooklyn College. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Essence, and The Paris Revi...

Deesha Philyaw reads from her book "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies", with sound design and music composition from GLASYS. Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies" was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, a finalist for The Story Prize (2020/2021), and longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her work has been listed as Notable in the Bes...

Shayla Lawson reads "Black Lives Matter, Yard Signs Matter," which is an excerpt from her book This Is Major, with sound design and music composition from Maita. Shayla Lawson is the author of This is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls & Being Dope, and three poetry collections. She has written for ESPN, Salon, Guernica, Vulture, and The Cut. She's a MacDowell and Yaddo Artist Colony Fellow, and is a 2020 Nation...

Soraya Nadia McDonald reads her essay "Wandering In Search of Wakanda", with sound design and music composition from Marco Pavé. Soraya Nadia McDonald is the culture critic for The Undefeated. She writes about pop culture, fashion, the arts, and literature. She is the 2020 winner of the George Jean Nathan prize for dramatic criticism, a 2020 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism, and the runner-up for the 2019 Vernon...

Jason Diamond reads an excerpt from "The Sprawl", with sound design and music composition from Xander Marsden. Jason Diamond is the founder of the website Vol. 1 Brooklyn and has worked as Editor and Writer at outlets such as Flavorwire, Men's Journal, Rolling Stone, and Insidehook.com. He's written for the New York Times, Outside, The Paris Review, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, The Wall Street journal, New Republic...

Noé Álvarez reads an excerpt from "Spirit Run", with sound design and music composition from Daniel Frankhuizen of Locator. Noé Álvarez was born to Mexican immigrant parents and raised working-class in Yakima, Washington, which are both topics covered in detail in his book, which – btw – is a debut. And some debut it was, garnering a Starred Review in Publisher's Weekly and an Editor's Choice Selection from the New ...

Paul Lisicky reads an excerpt from "Later: My Life at the Edge of the World", with sound design and music composition from Jordan Warmack. Paul is the author of five books. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts, and he teaches in the MFA program at Rutgers University-Camden. Paul's work has been praised everywhere from the New York Times and Slate to the Los An...

Charlie Jane Anders reads an excerpt from "Victories Greater Than Death", with sound design and music composition from Oginalii. Charlie Jane Anders is the author of Victories Greater Than Death, the first book in a new young-adult trilogy coming in April 2021, along with the forthcoming short story collection Even Greater Mistakes. Her other books include The City in the Middle of the Night and All the Birds in the Sky. He...

Andy Greenberg reads an excerpt from his book "Sandworm", with sound design and music composition from Locator. Andy Greenberg is a senior writer for WIRED, covering security, privacy, and information freedom. He’s the author of the book Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers. The book and excerpts from it published in WIRED won a Gerald Loeb Award for International Reporting, ...

Madhuri Vijay reads an excerpt from her novel "The Far Field", with sound design and music composition from French Cassettes. Madhuri Vijay was born and raised in Bangalore. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, and her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Best American Non-Required Reading, Narrative Magazine, and Elle India, among many other publications. The Far Field is her first book, and won the second JCB Priz...

Junot Díaz reads his short story "Aurora", with sound design and music composition from Y La Bamba. Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award final...

Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by Jude Brewer and with original music composed for each episode, the podcast features the voices of today’s top literary icons reading their essays, poems, and fiction. Brought to you by Lit Hub Radio and The Podglomerate.  Season 3 will begin publishing next Tuesday, December 8th. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/shows/storybound Learn more about your...

Ruth Reichl reads a selection of Letters to the Editor from Thanksgiving issues of Gourmet Magazine, with sound design and music composition from Tim Karplus. Ruth Reichl was Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine from 1999 to 2009. Before that she was the restaurant critic of both The New York Times (1993-1999) and the Los Angeles Times (1984-1993), where she was also named food editor. As co-owner of The Swallow Restaurant from 1974...

Stephanie Danler reads a second excerpt from her memoir "Stray" (the first can be found here) with sound design and music composition from Tim Karplus. Stephanie Danler is a novelist, memoirist, and screenwriter. Her memoir, Stray, was just published by Knopf on May 5, 2020. She is the author of the international bestseller, Sweetbitter, and the creator and executive producer of the Sweetbitter series on Starz. Her work has...

We're back with another bonus episode this week, this time featuring Jacke Wilson's excellent The History of Literature podcast. This is the show for anyone who loved English class – twice a week Jacke discusses a topic, book, or author that has made a name for themselves in literary canon and dissects it like a Wikipedia page mixed with your favorite professor.  With empathy and intelligence, the history of literature podc...

We hope you're enjoying Storybound so far, because we have a lot more wonderful episodes to share with you in the coming weeks and months. We're going to be taking a couple weeks off as we prepare for season 3, but we didn't want to leave your podcast feeds empty. Our friends at the Israel Story podcast have created a wonderful audio story from Israeli writer Etgar Keret, and we wanted to share it with you. Their regula...

We hope you're enjoying Storybound so far, because we have a lot more wonderful episodes to share with you in the coming weeks and months. We're going to be taking a couple weeks off as we prepare for season 3, but we didn't want to leave your podcast feeds empty. Our friends at Pushkin Industries produce another podcast called The Chronicles of Now, hosted by Ashley C. Ford, and we wanted to share it with you. Short fi...

Phil Klay reads an excerpt from his forthcoming novel "Missionaries," with sound design and music composition from Tim Karplus. Phil Klay is a veteran of the US Marine Corps. His short story collection Redeployment won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. He currently teaches fiction at Fairfield U...

Yaa Gyasi reads an excerpt from her novel "Transcendent Kingdom," with sound design and music composition from Tim Karplus. Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. Her debut novel, Homegoing, was awarded the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for best first book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first book of fiction, the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” honors for 2016, and the Ame...