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 University.

Tim Karplus has been working as a professional musical jack-of-all-trades in Portland, Oregon for the last 9 years. When he's not playing guitar, bass, drums or keyboards with noted Portland acts such as Haley Johnsen, The Weather Machine, and Anna Tivel, Tim can be found teaching music lessons, writing songs, and producing recordings at various studios in the greater Portland area. Currently, Tim is working on a solo record while sound-mixing for the Storybound podcast.

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Yaa Gyasi reads an excerpt from her novel "Transcendent Kingdom," with sound design by Jude Brewer 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 American Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn. 

Tim Karplus has been working as a professional musical jack-of-all-trades in Portland, Oregon for the last 9 years. When he's not playing guitar, bass, drums or keyboards with noted Portland acts such as Haley Johnsen, The Weather Machine, and Anna Tivel, Tim can be found teaching music lessons, writing songs, and producing recordings at various studios in the greater Portland area. Currently, Tim is working on a solo record while sound-mixing for the Storybound podcast.

This episode is brought to you by:

W.W. Norton, publisher of Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane. Get you copy wherever books are sold, now available in paperback.

Audible. Visit Audible.com/Storybound or text Storybound to "500-500" for a free audiobook.

Storybound is hosted by Jude Brewer and brought to you by The Podglomerate and Lit Hub Radio. Let us know what you think of the show on Instagram and Twitter @storyboundpod.

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This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. 

Since you're listening to Storybound, you might enjoy reading, writing, and storytelling. We'd like to suggest you also try the History of Literature or Book Dreams.

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Amanda Stern reads an excerpt from her memoir "Little Panic," with sound design by Jude Brewer and music composition from Hayley Lynn.

Amanda Stern is the host of the Bookable podcast and the founder of the popular literary event series Happy Ending at Joe’s Pub in New York City, Stern is also a writer. Happy Ending ran for more than a decade and was selected as New York’s best book-related series by New York Magazine, The Village Voice and NY Press. The New York Times Magazine singled out Stern as a force keeping “downtown New York alive.”

With a voice that silences every crowd and lyrics that cut you in two, Hayley Lynn has gained momentum as one of Portland's top singer-songwriters. Hayley's sound echoes the work of Ani Difranco with the bite and grit of Elle King and Fiona Apple.  She's written over 200 songs and released her first debut EP 'Hypnotize' in 2016. 

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Megan Angelo reads an excerpt from "Followers," with sound design by Jude Brewer and music composition from Tim Karplus.

Megan Angelo has written about television, film, women and pop culture, and motherhood for publications including The New York Times (where she helped launch city comedy coverage), Glamour (where she was a contributing editor and wrote a column on women and television), Elle, The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, and Slate. She is a native of Quakertown, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Villanova University. She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her family. FOLLOWERS is her first novel. 

Tim Karplus has been working as a professional musical jack-of-all-trades in Portland, Oregon for the last 9 years. When he's not playing guitar, bass, drums or keyboards with noted Portland acts such as Haley Johnsen, The Weather Machine, and Anna Tivel, Tim can be found teaching music lessons, writing songs, and producing recordings at various studios in the greater Portland area. Currently, Tim is working on a solo record while sound-mixing for the Storybound podcast.

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Garth Greenwell reads an excerpt from "Cleanness," with sound design by Jude Brewer and music composition from Ryan Dann of Holland Patent Public Library.

Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs to You, which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for several other prizes, including the PEN/Faulkner Award and the LA Times Book Prize. His new book of fiction, Cleanness, was published in January and has been named a Best Book of 2020 so far by Time, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, and the BBC. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in Iowa City. 

Ryan Dann is a sound designer and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. His resume ranges from festival circuit short films like The Music Lesson to composing all the original music for Joe Pera Talks With You, a comedy on Adult Swim, and producing podcasts through the Podglomerate network. He recently won the Brave+Bold Award at the Sarah Awards and has been in the process of pitching an original audio drama to Audible. Sandwiched in between these projects, he’s been working on a second album for his personal music project, Holland Patent Public Library.

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Chloe Caldwell reads her essay "The Opposite of Light," with sound design by Jude Brewer and music composition from Tony Kieraldo.

Chloe Caldwell is the author of three books: novella Women and essay collections I'll Tell You in Person and Legs Get Led Astray. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Vice, Salon, New York Magazine, Nylon, and half a dozen anthologies including Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NYC. Her essay "Hungry Ghost" was named notable in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017. Her memoir, The Red Zone, will publish Spring 2022 from Soft Skull. She lives in Hudson, N.Y. and teaches personal essay and creative nonfiction online at Catapult. 

Tony Kieraldo is an international recording artist, pianist, musical director and composer. He’s currently a pianist with Postmodern Jukebox, musical director for the National Dance Institute in NYC and Celebrate the Beat in Colorado. He's performed twice for the Obama's at the White House, conducted a critically acclaimed opera and has toured North America, South America and Europe with various musical groups.

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Sopan Deb reads an excerpt from "Missed Translations," with sound design by Jude Brewer and music composition from Jordan Holloman.

Sopan Deb is a basketball writer and a contributor to the culture section for The New York Times. Before joining The Times, he covered Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign for CBS News. He is also a New York-city based comedian. He is the author of the memoir "Missed Translations: Meeting The Immigrant Parents Who Raised Me."

Jordan Holloman, musician and independent producer, hails from Salt Lake City, UT, where he lives with his wife, dogs, and child-to-be.

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