Archive for Announcements

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Disability Pride & Magic Month

The PodCastle logo (a serpentine dragon flying with a castle on its back) over a Disability Pride Flag (muted red, yellow, white, blue, and green stripes on a grey background). Text reads: PodCastle Disability Pride & Magic In the background, there is a fantastical scene of floating islands in the sky with buildings on them

This July 2025, PodCastle is very proud to join in celebrating Disability Pride Month with Disability Pride & Magic: a month of fantastic stories centering disabled characters and experiences.

We have five wonderful stories for you:

“This Mentor Lives” by J. R. Dawson & John Wiswell, narrated by John Bell

“Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart” by Cat Rambo, narrated by the author

“Sour Fruit” by Gillian Knox, narrated by Karen Menzel

“Moths in a Fluttering Heart” by Christine Lucas, narrated by Kat Kourbeti

“Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike” by E. M. Faulds, narrated by Eliza Chan

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Special Call: Disability Pride & Magic

PodCastle is delighted to announce a special call for stories for our upcoming event for Disability Pride Month, Disability Pride & Magic, guest edited by long-time Castle denizen and current Audio Producer, Devin Martin.

We want to celebrate disabled authors, characters, and themes for this event. We’re using a broad definition of disability here, including physical disabilities, neurodivergence, mental illness, sensory disabilities, chronic illness, and invisible and undiagnosed disabilities. While some people in some of these groups may not identify as disabled, society tends to marginalise us all in similar ways, and the choice to identify as disabled or not is complex, deeply personal, and not for us to gatekeep.

In fiction, disabled people — where we appear at all — tend to be left on the sidelines or treated as passive sources of inspiration (or worse: ridicule or disgust). In fantasy, we get our difficulties erased with superpowers or magical cures. We’re looking for stories that defy these trends. We want to see stories that show the dynamic nature of disability, that grapple with ableism (internal and external), and that, ultimately, see us as fully human — a depressingly low bar that is still failed all too often.

This call is open to everyone. While we believe disabled stories are best told by disabled voices, no one should have to disclose their status if they aren’t comfortable doing so. That said, this is an event centred around pride, visibility, and acceptance, on dismantling ableist notions of shame that silence and alienate disabled people. In that spirit, we strongly encourage authors to speak up about their disabilities, especially if their lived experience informs their story.

We’re a fantasy publication, so all stories must have a fantasy element that’s crucial to the tale, though it can be subtle. We are unable to consider science fiction or straight-up horror, though dark fantasy is more than welcome. We will consider both originals and reprints for this call, paying our standard rate of 8 cents per word for originals and $100 for reprints. We’re looking for stories between 2,000-6,000 words, though we will consider up to 7,000 words for reprints. These upper limits are strict: unfortunately we cannot consider reprints above 7,000 words or originals above 6,000 for this submissions call.

We’ll be open to Disability Pride & Magic submissions for an extended period, from 7th January to 31st of March 2025. Please submit through our Moksha portal. Our standard guidelines apply to anything we haven’t specified here.

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Palestinian Voices Month

PodCastle is extremely proud to present Palestinian Voices, our special month of stories by Palestinian authors. We will be publishing one of these fabulous stories every week during November 2024, and we’re so excited to get to elevate these authors and to share their talent, creativity, and voice with the world at a time of such horrific oppression for the Palestinian people. This month is about celebrating and uplifting Palestinians, and I hope you’ll join us to read and listen to these four fantastic tales from four terrifically talented writers:

 

“Al-Kahf” by Beesan Odeh, narrated by Zeina Sleiman

“Handala. The Olive, The Storm, and the Sea” by Sonia Sulaiman, narrated by Peter Adrian Behravesh

“Badia’s Magic Water” by Maya Abu-Alhayyat, narrated by Mahtab Chenevix-Trench

“The Witch of Endor” by Karim Kattan, narrated by Amal Singh

 

We’re also thrilled to be featuring beautiful artwork by Iasmin Omar Ata, based on Sonia Sulaiman’s “Handala. The Olive, The Storm, and The Sea.” Iasmin is a Middle Eastern & Muslim award-winning comics artist, game designer, and illustrator who creates art about coping with illness, understanding identity, dismantling oppressive structures, and Arab-Islamic futurism. Their recent graphic novel, Mis(h)adra, has resonated with readers and reviewers alike with its vivid and searingly honest account of epileptic lived experience. Iasmin has been reviewed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, The Electronic Intifada, Library Journal, NPR, and such; they’ve taught & spoken at the New York Public Library and Harvard University. They thrive on dedication, dreams, and hard work — and believe wholeheartedly in the healing power of art. They are an Ignatz Award winner and an Excellence In Graphic Literature Award finalist, and their newest graphic novel, NAYRA AND THE DJINN, is now available in stores everywhere.

Our cover art design is by Matt Dovey.

 

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Ignyte Awards and British Fantasy Awards Nominations!

The finalists for the Ignyte Awards have been announced, and PodCastle has been nominated for this prestigious accolade! PodCastle is a finalist in the Best Fiction Podcast category, as is our sister podcast Cast of Wonders! Additionally, our co-editor Shingai Njeri Kagunda’s Voodoonauts Summer Fellowship is nominated for THE COMMUNITY AWARD for Outstanding Efforts in Service of Inclusion and Equitable Practice in Genre. Congratulations all!

The Ignyte Awards both broaden and deepen the genre awards scene, including not only short story, novel, and art categories, but also awards for poetry, middle-grade, podcasts, and others — as well as two separate awards that celebrate contributions to genre in the pursuit of inclusiveness and equity. The Ignyte Awards reflect the business models, values, and imagination of the SFFH field, lighting a path of possibility for both new and veteran creators.

We’re excited and honored to be nominated alongside such an amazing group of diverse creators. 

Vote here! Voting for the 2024 awards will close August 31st, 2024 at 11:59PM EDT. This year’s winners will be announced on November 6th.

 

ALSO! 

 

The finalists for the 2024 British Fantasy Award have been announced, and PodCastle has been nominated in the Best Audio category!

The nominee list is bursting with incredible talent in every category, including our sister podcasts Cast of Wonders and  PseudoPod, also in the Audio category. We consider ourselves honored to appear alongside all of the incredible nominees and would like to extend their deep gratitude to PodCastle’s wonderful listeners, to the Escape Artists group of podcasts, and to the entire PodCastle team, past and present, who work tirelessly to bring you the best of fantasy fiction every week.

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Special Submissions Call: Palestinian Voices

It is in deep solidarity, and continual demand for a ceasefire, that PodCastle would like to announce our special call for fantasy stories by Palestinian writers. As Nina Simone once said: “An artist’s duty… is to reflect the times.” We recognize our position as a publication offers a unique opportunity to insist on art that reflects the times, and as Ursula K. Le Guin offers, “Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

We stand in solidarity with Palestinian people and their words. The hope of this call is to insist on the right to create spaces for Palestinian imaginations; imaginations for a future that protects Palestinian lives, a past that restores their right to a home, and a present that centers their dignity and self-determination. We want to see stories from Palestinian authors regardless of where they live – whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or diaspora anywhere in the world.

Whilst we can only consider stories written in English, we strongly welcome translations of stories originally written in Arabic (or any other language), and any story that is previously unpublished in English will be treated as an original regardless of whether it has been previously published in a different language. Payment for translated stories will be split between the author and translator. We also especially encourage stories that incorporate more than one dialect, stories that offer alternative structures to the expected linear standardized arc, and stories that offer a fresh take or new perspective on a history that has not been considered universal. We are not necessarily looking for stories set in Palestinian territories or featuring Palestinian characters, though we of course very much welcome those perspectives. Our only special requirement for this call is that you are a writer who claims Palestinian heritage.

We’re a fantasy publication, so all stories must have a fantasy element that’s crucial to the tale, though it can be subtle. We are unable to consider science fiction or straight-up horror, though dark fantasy is more than welcome. We will consider both originals and reprints for this call, paying our standard rate of 8 cents per word for originals (defined as any story previously unpublished in English) and $100 for reprints. We’re looking for stories between 2,000-6,000 words, though we will consider up to 7,000 words for reprints. These upper limits are strict: unfortunately we cannot consider reprints above 7,000 words or originals above 6,000 for this submissions call.

Our standard guidelines apply to anything not already mentioned here. Please submit your stories via our Moksha portal, which will be open for these submissions from the 8th to the 22nd of April 2024.

Narrator Auditions

We will also be opening to auditions for Palestinian narrators during this submissions call! If you are of Palestinian heritage and would like to potentially lend your voice to one of these stories, we would love to consider you. We offer a token payment of $30.00 for the narration of stories above 1,500 words, and $15.00 for flash pieces of 1,500 words or less. Please read our Narrator Guidelines, particularly the Preparation section, and then record a 2-3 minute sample of yourself reading an excerpt of fiction in English. You can now upload your audition via our audition portal until the 30th of April. In the cover letter section, please include a short, third-person bio to tell us a little about yourself. The word-count box can be filled in with any random number, as it’s not relevant to audio submissions. We prefer samples recorded in mono and saved as .wav files.

 

We very much look forward to reading your stories and hearing your voices.

~Shingai Njeri Kagunda and Eleanor R. Wood
PodCastle Co-Editors

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We Need to Talk About the Hugos…

We need to talk about the Hugos, actually. The Hugo Award is the highest accolade in our field–it is our Oscar, our Grammy, the biggest event. Even being nominated is an enormous honour, the sort of moment you carry for the rest of your life. This year, though, that feeling is more complicated. Worldcon 2023–where the Hugos are to be awarded–is being held in Chengdu, China, and whilst we absolutely celebrate this geographical broadening of the convention and believe the “world” part of Worldcon has been neglected for far too long, it is impossible to avoid that an event of this size and international stature could not happen without the knowledge and approval of the totalitarian regime in control of China–a regime currently engaged in a genocidal campaign of religious prejudice against the Uyghur people. (Continue Reading…)

January 2023 Metacast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:25 — 13.3MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS

Presenters: Marguerite Kenner and Alasdair Stuart

Hey folks, welcome to an Escape Artists metacast. I’m Marguerite Kenner. And I’m Alasdair Stuart.

For those of you who have never heard a metacast before, think of this like a mini State of the Union address, a way for us to update you about what’s been happening at EA. The big thing is our news that EA now stands for the Escape Artists Foundation — we’ve become a nonprofit. We want to share with you how we got there, answer some questions, and explain what it means for you. (Continue Reading…)

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EA Audience Survey!

Hello everyone!

Escape Artists is excited to announce that we are launching our first-ever audience survey between November 15th and 30th! We are interested in learning more about you, our audience, including how you engage with our shows, your access needs, what content you enjoy and want to see more of, and how you think we could be doing better.

The survey is anonymous and takes under five minutes to complete, and you have the chance to enter a draw to win an EA SWAG BAG full of incredible EA merchandise!

Thank you, as always, for your incredible support, and we can’t wait to hear from you!

 

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Indigenous Magic Month

 

PodCastle is very proud to present Indigenous Magic, our special month of stories featuring Indigenous themes by Indigenous authors. Every week during November 2022, we will be bringing you a new Indigenous Magic story, and we can’t wait to share them all!

We have five fabulous stories coming up:

“Anu and the Vetala” by Srikripa Krishna Prasad, narrated by S. B. Divya

“The Tree Whisperer” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe, narrated by Somto Ihezue

“The Bone Pickers” by Kelsey Hutton, narrated by Laurie McDougall

“The Witching Hour” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, narrated by Shingai Njeri Kagunda

“Dying Rivers and Broken Hearts” by Gabriella Buba, narrated by Vida Cruz

We’re also delighted to be featuring this beautiful artwork by Cindy Fan, an illustrator and night owl who specializes in bringing stories to life in a dreamy and thoughtful manner for print and digital media. When she’s not drawing she loves walking slowly and aimlessly admiring the textures around her. Her work can be found at www.cind.ca

Our cover art design is by Matt Dovey.