Jude Brewer is a Portland-based writer, audio producer, actor, and host of Storybound. His piece “Buzzy” finished first in KCRW’s 2021 Radio Race. From KCRW: "In lieu of voicemails, letters, or other tangible keepsakes, the sound of a skateboard remains Brewer’s only tie to his late childhood best friend and neighbor, Buzzy. Beyond the piece’s beautifully crafted audio design and editing, Brewer wields sound as a character unto itself, taking the listener inside its ability to trigger — and sustain — memories of halcyon days spent perfecting kickflips after school and revelling in the unwritten possibilities and potential of youth."

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Clint Smith reads an excerpt from "How the Word Is Passed," backed by an original Storybound remix with Taber Arias, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America," which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and was longlisted for the National Book Award. He is also the author of the poetry collection "Counting Descent," which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award.

Clint has received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review, and elsewhere. He is a 2014 National Poetry Slam champion and a 2017 recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Prize from the American Poetry Review.

Taber Arias is an artist from Portland, OR who's been making music since 2015. He also makes instrumentals under the name "hi, ily" on all streaming platforms.

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Dawnie Walton reads an excerpt from "The Final Revival of Opal & Nev," backed by an original Storybound remix, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Dawnie Walton's work as a fiction writer and journalist explores identity, place, and the influence of pop culture. A MacDowell Colony fellow (2015), a Tin House Scholar (2017), and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (MFA, 2018), she has worked as an executive-level editor for magazine and multimedia brands including Essence, Entertainment Weekly, Getty Images, and LIFE. A native of Jacksonville, Florida, she lives in Brooklyn.

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Jason Brown reads his story, "A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed," backed by an original Storybound remix with Mattias Tell, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Jason Brown is a fiction and nonfiction writer. He has published three books of short stories, "Driving the Heart and Other Stories" (Norton/Random House), "Why the Devil Chose New England For His Work" (Open City/Grove Atlantic), and "A Faithful But Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed", published in the fall of 2019 as part of the short fiction series by Missouri Review Books. His stories and essays have won several awards and appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, The L.A. Times, The Guardian, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, The Missouri Review, and other venues. Several of his stories have been performed as part of NPR’s Selected Shorts, and his collection Why The Devil Chose New England For His Work was chosen as a summer reading pick by National Public Radio.

Mattias Tell is a Swedish songwriter and musician. Known for his eclectic and diverse rock guitar and versatile production, he has also started a new record company with comedian and artist Marcus Berggen caled Kode Records. Mattias’ approach to musical composition is that of a painting; all you need is a blank canvas and some colors to create something beautiful.

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Elizabeth McCracken reads her short story, "It's Not You," backed by an original Storybound remix with Moon Hound, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of seven books: "Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry," "The Giant’s House," "Niagara Falls All Over Again," "An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination," "Thunderstruck & Other Stories," "Bowlaway," and "The Souvenir Museum."  She’s received grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Liguria Study Center, the American Academy in Berlin, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. "Thunderstruck & Other Stories" won the 2015 Story Prize. Her work has been published in The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The O. Henry Prize, The New York Times Magazine, and many other places.

Moon Hound is a Ridgewood-based baroque rock band. Together, the band sounds like a smattering of different eras of alternative rock. Their latest EP, “Crescent,” was released in 2021.

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