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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Marian Crotty reads her short story "Halloween," backed by an original Storybound remix with My Son the Doctor, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Marian Crotty's first book, "What Counts as Love," was published through the University of Iowa Short Fiction Awards (John Simmons Award). The book was a semi-finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and received the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for fiction by an American woman. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals such as the Southern Review, the Kenyon Review, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. Her personal essays have appeared in journals such as the Gettysburg Review, the New England Review, and Guernica. She has received funding from the Sewanee and Bread Loaf Writers’ conferences, the Yaddo Corporation, and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing as well as a Fulbright research grant to the United Arab Emirates. She is an assistant professor of writing at Loyola University Maryland and an assistant editor at The Common. She lives in Baltimore and is at work on a novel.

My Son The Doctor began prescribing their swaggering new wave punk sound to the Brooklyn scene in 2019. The 4-piece released their debut EP "Dad Time" in 2020 featuring 4 songs in just 9 minutes and 47 seconds. Their 2nd EP, "Taste Those Dreams," is set for release in October 2021.

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Leigh Newman reads her story "Howl Palace," backed by an original Storybound remix, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Leigh Newman's memoir about Alaska, “Still Points North” was a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle’s John Leonard prize and her new book "Nobody Gets Out Alive" is forthcoming next spring from Scribner. Her short stories have appeared in Harper’s, the Paris Review, One Story, Tin House, Electric Literature, and McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. She is the winner of the Paris Review’s Terry Southern Prize for “humor, wit, and sprezzatura” and, in 2020, her story “Howl Palace” recognized by the Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize and the American Society of Magazine Editors' fiction award.

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Sarah Thankam Mathews reads her story "Rubberdust," backed by an original Storybound remix, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Sarah Thankam Mathews grew up between Oman and India, and immigrated to the United States at seventeen. She was a Rona Jaffe Fellow in fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and a Margins Fellow at The Asian American Writers' Workshop. Her work has been featured in "Best American Short Stories 2020," and her novel, "All This Could Be Different" is forthcoming in 2022. Mathews is also a co-founder of the Brooklyn-based Bed-Stuy Strong, which was formed during the COVID-19 pandemic to help deliver groceries and other resources to people in need.

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Jane Pek reads an excerpt from her story “Portrait of Two Young Ladies in White and Green Robes (Unidentified Artist, Circa Sixteenth Century)," backed by an original Storybound remix with Daniel Frankhuizen, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Jane Pek was born and grew up in Singapore, and now lives in New York. She has a BA in History from Yale University, a JD from the New York University School of Law, and an MFA from Brooklyn College. Her short fiction has been anthologized in "The Best American Short Stories," and her debut novel, "The Verifiers," is forthcoming from Vintage/Knopf in February 2022.

Daniel Frankhuizen has performed throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist, chamber musician, and in several pop groups. He has performed in venues from Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall, to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Storm King Art Center. He has served as principal cellist for the Empire Chamber Orchestra and Opera in the Ozarks Festival Orchestra. Daniel is also a founding member of the Orvieto Piano Trio, a group that over the last ten years, has performed classical piano trio literature throughout the United States, Canada, and Italy.

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William Pei Shih reads an excerpt from "The Enlightenment," backed by an original Storybound remix with Modern Diet, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

William Pei Shih has had stories published in "The Best American Short Stories 2020," VQR, McSweeney's, Catapult, The Asian American Literary Review, The Des Monies Register, The Masters Review, and many others. He's received scholarships and support from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, Kundiman, the Napa Valley Writers' Conference, and the Ragdale Residency. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop (MFA, Fiction), where he was a recipient of the Dean's Graduate Fellowship. He currently teaches at NYU.

Modern Diet is a Brooklyn based indie-rock band who have played everywhere from Vermont to Nashville. Their latest release, "Post Grad," was released in 2020.

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Meng Jin reads an excerpt from her story "In the Event," backed by an original Storybound remix, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Meng Jin is the author of the novel "Little Gods," which was a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Award and LA Times First Fiction Prize. Her next book, "Self-Portrait With Ghost, a Collection of Short Fictions," is forthcoming from Custom House in the summer of 2022, and she is working an a new novel, "Mothers and Girls: A Fake Memoir," for which she received a 2021 Creative Capital Award.

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Myriam Gurba reads her story "Writing Ourselves Into Bed," backed by an original Storybound remix with Zola Jesus, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Myriam Gurba is a writer and artist. She is the author of the true-crime memoir "Mean," a New York Times editors’ choice. O, the Oprah Magazine, ranked "Mean" as one of the best LGBTQ books of all time. Publishers’ Weekly describes Gurba as having a voice like no other. Her essays and criticism have appeared in the Paris Review, TIME.com, and 4Columns. She has shown art in galleries, museums, and community centers.

Zola Jesus a singer and songwriter known for combining elements of electronic, industrial, classical, and goth. Her latest album, Live at Roadburn 2018 was released in 2020.

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Anna Reeser reads her short story, "Octopus VII," backed by an original Storybound remix with The Bright Light Social Hour, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Anna Reeser’s short fiction is anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2020 and is published in journals including Fourteen Hills, CutBank, and The Masters Review. She is an alum of the Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshops, the Tin House Winter Workshop, and the One Story Writing Circle. Originally from Ojai, California, she holds a degree from UC Berkeley in English Literature and Art Practice. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories and a novel.

The Bright Light Social Hour is an Austin, Texas based band whose music has been featured by Nintendo, HBO, MTV, Fox, Ubisoft, and NBC. They have toured all over the world, including stops at Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza. They composed the theme for Amazon's hit series, "Sneaky Pete," and their latest release, Enter Weed Martyr was released in 2021.

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Ruth Wariner reads an excerpt from "The Sound of Gravel," backed by an original Storybound remix with Shook Twins, and sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Ruth Wariner is an internationally renowned speaker and author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, "The Sound of Gravel". At the age of fifteen, Ruth escaped Colonia LeBaron, the polygamist Mormon colony where she grew up, and moved to California. She raised her three youngest sisters in California and Oregon. After earning her GED, she put herself through college and graduate school, eventually becoming a high school Spanish teacher. She remains close to her siblings and is happily married. "The Sound of Gravel" is her first book.

Shook Twins is a Portland-based folk group featuring twins Katelyn and Laurie Shook. Mixing traditional folk instruments like mandolin and banjo with looping machines and beatboxing, Shook Twins pays homage to folk's roots, while creating an entirely new sound.

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