Meet Portia Elan, the librarian-turned-debut author behind GMA’s May Book Club pick “Homebound”

If you haven’t heard of Portia Elan yet, you will soon. This debut author released her first novel, Homebound, on May 5, and it’s been generating some serious buzz. Selected as May’s Good Morning America Book Club pick, this epic novel spans centuries into the future, starting in the 1980s with a video game that sets everything in motion. With a long list of starred reviews and praise from authors like Madeline Miller, who calls it “a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human,” Homebound is exactly the kind of story the world needs right now: hopeful, deeply connected, and ultimately about finding our way home—to ourselves and to one another.

While this may be Portia’s first novel, she’s no stranger to the stacks. Working as a teen librarian and teacher in California, she’s spent years connecting readers with stories and understands the importance of being able to see yourself reflected in books. If you’re curious about the story behind Homebound, or want to hear what Portia's reading and her favorite ways to use Libby, dive into the Q&A:

Libby Life: Homebound is your debut novel and it’s already a Good Morning America Book Club pick! What have the past few weeks been like for you?

Portia: It’s been a joyful blur! For a long time, it was just me and the book in conversation, and it’s a delight to now feel that conversation expanding.

Libby Life: What first sparked the idea for this story?

Portia: The book began when I was doing writing prompts with friends during the lockdown—the prompt was to write about a character with a pet peeve, and Becks just appeared: prickly, angry, but also vulnerable. I knew I had to follow her.

Libby Life: The novel begins in 1983 with a floppy disk and unfolds across time. What drew you to that era as your starting point?

Portia: I knew from early on that Becks had to be set in the 1980s for a few reasons: I knew she was going to lose her uncle to AIDS, she was going to grapple with her own sexuality, and that she loved punk rock! It just so happened that there were also a lot of things happening in the gaming world then, too.

Libby Life: The audiobook, narrated by Lisa Flanagan, brings the story to life in a new way. Did you think about the audiobook version while writing?

Portia: I wasn’t even sure this was going to become a real book when I was writing, much less an audiobook! I’m really amazed at how the narrators have brought all of the characters to life—especially in the game chapters.

Libby Life: How did your experience working as a teen librarian shape your writing career?

Portia: Working as a teen librarian gave me a close-up view of the ways that so much of human life is cyclical—a teenager is a teenager is a teenager, whether in 2026 or 1983 or 1922, you know? It opened my eyes to some of those universal needs that cut across ages, too: the need to have choices, to be valued, to be understood. Those are needs that started showing up in my characters, too.

“Working as a teen librarian gave me a close-up view of the ways that so much of human life is cyclical—a teenager is a teenager is a teenager, whether in 2026 or 1983 or 1922.”

Libby Life: With a story that moves across centuries and imagined futures, how did your experience as a librarian influence how you researched (and imagined!) the worlds in Homebound?

Portia: I have a librarian’s persistent, stubborn belief that the information I'm looking for exists, if I can figure out how to find it. I also used to be a historian, so I have an allegiance to primary sources—both of which meant I ended up down many research rabbit holes, listening to archived radio broadcasts and reading research papers about nanotechnology and learning how to code on a C64 emulator!

Libby Life: In your bio, you said you have “an abundance” of cats. As a fellow feline lover, how many is “an abundance” and do any of them help with your writing process?

Portia: I think an abundance is technically defined as “just shy of too many”! We have three indoor cats and a fluctuating number of community cats that we care for. Two (sequential) torties have sat on my lap for most of the writing of the book (very good for keeping me working!), and my cranky tabby slept on a chair next to me from first draft until the book was through copyedits.

Libby Life: Homebound explores loneliness and connection across time and even across different kinds of beings. What do you hope readers carry with them after finishing it?

Portia: I hope that readers are transported by the mystery and the heart of the story, and that they walk away from the book feeling more hopeful, more connected, as though their world has been expanded. 

“I hope that readers...walk away from the book feeling more hopeful, more connected, as though their world has been expanded.”

Libby Life: Do you have a favorite Libby feature or a favorite way you personally use the app?

Portia: I love so many Libby features! 

1. The way you can see the whole series at the bottom of a book’s description! 

2. Sorting audiobooks by length!

3. TBR and Notify Me tags! 

4. My favorite way to use Libby is to go to Available Now and sort by random and then just take a tour of books that I never would have discovered otherwise.

Libby Life: What are you reading right now?

Portia: I just finished the most recent Murderbot book (loved it!). I’m also in the midst of Chloe Lauter’s creepy and excellent The Flayed Man, and I picked up Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio at the bookstore yesterday!

So, what’s next for Portia? “There are a few voices circling the desk,” she says. “But none of them have settled down yet.” 

She keeps an inspirational note above her desk with the words, “I am leaving a mess behind me.” It’s a reminder that her job isn’t to make something perfect or finished—it’s to keep moving forward. Good advice for all of us. Homebound is proof that what may begin as a “mess” can grow into a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into the future.

📚 Find Portia’s new book, Homebound, on the Libby app from your library. For more author conversations, be sure to subscribe to Libby Life or check out the Book Lounge by Libby podcast.

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