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PodCastle
@podcastle.org
3K followers 34 following 310 posts
Short fantasy from
@EAPodcasts


BFA winner, Ignyte winner
WFA, Hugo, Ignyte, Aurora finalists
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podcastle.org
#PC926: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Gold Silkworm by Tony Pi, read by S. Qiouyi Lu
Previously ran as #PC423 and first published in Fantasy Magazine. Rated PG-13

podcastle.org/2026/01/13/p...
#PC926: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Gold Silkworm by Tony Pi, read by S. Qiouyi Lu Previously ran as #PC423 and first published in Fantasy Magazine. Rated PG-13 When I first became keeper of the Spirit of Grass, she and I made a pact to never turn away one in need, whether they be rich or poor. Madame Ke was one of the rich. She had heard of my skills in medicine from her sister, and asked if I would come to the Garden of Timely Rains. I accepted the invitation and arrived in the early afternoon, when the high sun gave glow to the garden pond and terraces. A servant escorted me to the Pavilion for Tasting Autumn Pears where a woman in her thirties awaited me. Madame Ke, radiant in a dress printed with gold hibiscuses, bade me to join her at the tea table. Though eager to consult a woman doctor, she asked first for proof that I wasn’t a wandering healer.
January 14, 2026 at 8:51 PM
podcastle.org
#PC925: The Immortal Rabbit by Audris Candra, read by Zilla Paramita. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content notes for homophobia, violence, the death of a spouse, and second-person narration.

podcastle.org/2026/01/06/p...
#PC925: The Immortal Rabbit by Audris Candra, read by Zilla Paramita. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content notes for homophobia, violence, the death of a spouse, and second-person narration. Your most painful death fell upon you when your soulmate had forgotten who you were. You’d shared a kiss in a previous life, under the lush grape vines on the cusp of Mediterranean hills. His lips were tender with wine, yours raw from his two front teeth. “We’re immortal,” you said. “Because when our flesh fails us, I will find you.” You had died together then, on the same battlefield, to defend your homeland against the Romans. In this life you’re forced to balance on your toes under the golden brush of the ginkgo tree just to catch a glimpse of him. Here he sat on a porcelain garden stool, spine straight and hands smooth from a good life led as a Qing dynasty imperial official.
January 7, 2026 at 7:19 AM
Reposted by PodCastle
courtney-floyd.com
Delighted that my story, “CoverLetter_Version,5” appeared as a reprint with two other fantastic flash pieces in @podcastle.org today! They did my story proud! 🖤

Thanks specially to Kaitlyn Zivanovich for bringing my story to life so beautifully.
November 25, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by PodCastle
bmorrisallen.com
My latest story is up @podcastle.org ! You can read my flash story, "The Only Map is Memory" along with shorts by David McGuire and Courtney Floyd.
podcastle.org/2025/11/25/p...
This is, astoundingly, my 12th story published this year, far outstripping any previous year.
PodCastle 919: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Possibilities - PodCastle
The Only Map is Memory by B. Morris Allen I use my memory for a map. It’s the only map I have, but it’s unreliable in the way all memory is. Objects that I remember as big must have been smaller, loca...
podcastle.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
podcastle.org
#PC919: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Possibilities! The Only Map is Memory (PG) by B. Morris Allen, narrated by Hugo Jackson, Valfierno (PG-13) by David McGuire, narrated by Steve Anderson and CoverLetter_Version5 (PG) by Courtney Floyd, narrated by Kaitlyn Zivanovich.
#PC919: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Possibilities! The Only Map is Memory (PG) by B. Morris Allen, narrated by Hugo Jackson, Valfierno (PG-13) by David McGuire, narrated by Steve Anderson and CoverLetter_Version5 (PG) by Courtney Floyd, narrated by Kaitlyn Zivanovich.
November 28, 2025 at 5:07 PM
podcastle.org
#PC918: Waterways by Diana Dima read by Matt Dovey. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. Content warning for self-harm and coercive control.

podcastle.org/2025/11/18/p...
#PC918: Waterways by Diana Dima read by Matt Dovey. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. Content warning for self-harm and coercive control. When his father died and left him the boat, he thought to himself, I can do it. I’m a boat-son, a boat-man, I’m no longer a child and no longer have to go home at sunset, when mother and sisters gather around the table and talk about the will and the debts. In the will his father had written to my son, who may yet feel at home on the water. So David spent days in the yard, scrubbing and polishing and waxing, and often fell asleep under the boat tarp in the cool May night. When he left, he did look back at the hunched house and the village, faint as a smear of dirt on the green and the blue. He did feel a pang of guilt deep under the ribs. But mostly he was driven like a powerboat, like a steering wheel under his father’s hand. So he steered toward the northern shores where they used to go fishing for pike and drop anchor for the night in quiet coves.
November 19, 2025 at 6:37 PM
podcastle.org
#PC917: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar read by Marguerite Croft. Previously ran as episode 139 and originally published in Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. Rated R.

podcastle.org/2025/11/11/p...
#PC917: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar read by Marguerite Croft. Previously ran as episode 139 and originally published in Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. Rated R.
November 12, 2025 at 11:13 PM
podcastle.org
#PC916: Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush by Ruth Joffre read by Julia Rios. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated G

podcastle.org/2025/11/04/p...
#PC916: Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush by by Ruth Joffre read by Julia Rios. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated G Yesterday, I was a bird. A slender-billed curlew, to be exact. My girlfriend helped me ID the bird. Took photographs of my decurved bill, the flash of white under my tail, the small brown speckles on my cream-white breast. “Some of these spots look like hearts,” I said this morning, once I was human again and able to compare her pictures to the one in an article I found: “The Slender-Billed Curlew Is Declared Extinct.” It always happens like this: a species disappears once and for all, and I transform into a replica of it for one day. Thirteen hours, at least, maybe more if I wake up especially early. It takes about an hour each way for the metamorphosis to be complete — long enough, in theory, for me to prepare. To lock the doors, rush to the bathtub if I feel gills opening in my throat. I often track the process in the mirror as it unfolds. Watch scales harden over my flesh, feathers push through my pores. It never stops feeling like magic.
November 4, 2025 at 3:03 PM
podcastle.org
#PC915: The Hunter, the Monster, and the Things That Could Have Been by Leah Ning, read by Amanda Ching. Previously published in Monster Lairs (Dark Matter INK, October 2023). Rated PG-13

podcastle.org/2025/10/28/p...
#PC915: The Hunter, the Monster, and the Things That Could Have Been by Leah Ning, read by Amanda Ching. Previously published in Monster Lairs (Dark Matter INK, October 2023). Rated PG-13 You find the dying woman-thing in an alley, breathing her final wet, rasping breaths in a heap of white trash bags that seems more like a throne. Everything tells you to run: twenty-four years of instinct, the government monster information pamphlets, the hard, practical voice at the back of your head that sounds a lot like your monster hunter girlfriend. And then the woman-thing looks up. Her dark, scaled cheek drags on the distended belly of plastic that makes her pillow. Her chapped lips part and she says, in a voice like acid and smoke: “Eiko.” That should make you run, too. Things that know your name and shouldn’t are firmly in “get the hell out and don’t look back” territory. But something in her voice hooks into the bottom of your soul and tugs.
October 28, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by PodCastle
edenroyce.bsky.social
Thrilled my story "The Magnolia Returns" is up at @podcastle.org! It's a tale of a lonely, traveling butcher shop serving its community and finally finding companionship.

The audio is narrated by the incredible Laurice White, who always nails the dialect.

podcastle.org/2025/10/21/p...

#booksky
A background of a green, hilly city on a rock suspended in the clouds. In the lower left corner, the PodCastle logo sits, a teal dragon circling a multi-turreted castle with a gold flag flying above it. Text reads: The Magnolia Returns Written by Eden Royce Read by Laurice White PodCastle Episode 914 "The Magnolia blooms out of nowhere at any time of year it chooses, bringing its dilapidated wooden slats and rickety front steps to a neighborhood that somehow believes it has always been there. The butcher shop itself is well-worn, looking like it has seen better days: peeling seafoam green paint on salt-blasted boards, the once-vivid red front door now a faded smear like lipstick after an ardent lover’s attention."
October 22, 2025 at 11:54 AM
podcastle.org
#PC914: The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce, read by Laurice White. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG.

podcastle.org/2025/10/21/p...
#PC914: The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce, read by Laurice White. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. The Magnolia blooms out of nowhere at any time of year it chooses, bringing its dilapidated wooden slats and rickety front steps to a neighborhood that somehow believes it has always been there. The butcher shop itself is well-worn, looking like it has seen better days: peeling seafoam green paint on salt-blasted boards, the once-vivid red front door now a faded smear like lipstick after an ardent lover’s attention. Once it arrives, the locals begin to talk about visiting. They have always talked of the things they miss in life, and more often than not, it’s the food, the ingredients. Depending on when and where the Magnolia appears, either the supermarkets don’t stock the items the locals crave — the chicken feet, the pig tails, jowl, and ear — or these once-reviled parts of the animal have become so popular with the wealthy, it’s impossible for the poor to attain them.
October 22, 2025 at 8:17 AM
podcastle.org
We at the Castle are still reeling from this wonderful news, thank you everyone!
October 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by PodCastle
alasdairstuart.bsky.social
Immense congratulations to every finalist and winner and OH MY GOD TEAM @podcastle.org ! Amazing work!
October 12, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by PodCastle
trollbreath.com
How wonderful to see this story landing over at Podcastle! We're so glad to have found it in our slush pile, and I'm pleased she found a home for the audio rights that would do it justice.
podcastle.org PodCastle @podcastle.org · Oct 15
#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning

podcastle.org/2025/10/14/p...
#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning The Kamchia river had grown turgid after a storm. I surfaced from my habitual pool and bent over the young girl as she lay washed on the bank, her limbs cold and pale as the settling twilight. A small tin boat lay near her half-opened hand — the reason she took a tumble into my river. I paused. Yes, though weak, a current flowed beneath the child’s skin; her heart still worked. I placed a palm on her chest. The river water in the girl’s lungs had no choice but to obey me. I willed it out, and it obliged in a single great spurt. As if she had waited for just that, the girl’s eyes flew open, her hand clamping around my wrist with desperate strength.
October 18, 2025 at 9:42 PM
podcastle.org
Announcement: PodCastle Is Trialling a Six Month Submissions Window!! We will open in November and close in April. See our announcement on the website for details. All our usual Submissions Guidelines still apply.

podcastle.org/2025/10/17/a...
Announcement: PodCastle Is Trialling a Six Month Submissions Window - PodCastle
Greetings, writers of fantasy fiction! We at PodCastle are due to open back up to general submissions in November. When we do, instead of our usual one month open period, we plan to open for six month...
podcastle.org
October 19, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by PodCastle
darthj.uno
Congratulations to @podcastle.org for winning an Ignyte Award! 👏

What a beautiful happenstance that my new narration is up there today - 'Vedritsa of the River' by @catchingwords.bsky.social is a sapphic Rusalka story with cli-fi elements, and I was deeply honoured to work on it. Give it a listen!
PodCastle 913: Vedritsa of the River - PodCastle
Vedritsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva   The Kamchia river had grown turgid after a storm. I surfaced from my habitual pool and bent over the young girl as she lay washed on the bank, her limbs co...
podcastle.org
October 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM
podcastle.org
#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning

podcastle.org/2025/10/14/p...
#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning The Kamchia river had grown turgid after a storm. I surfaced from my habitual pool and bent over the young girl as she lay washed on the bank, her limbs cold and pale as the settling twilight. A small tin boat lay near her half-opened hand — the reason she took a tumble into my river. I paused. Yes, though weak, a current flowed beneath the child’s skin; her heart still worked. I placed a palm on her chest. The river water in the girl’s lungs had no choice but to obey me. I willed it out, and it obliged in a single great spurt. As if she had waited for just that, the girl’s eyes flew open, her hand clamping around my wrist with desperate strength.
October 15, 2025 at 10:53 AM
podcastle.org
#PC912: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Tanuki-Kettle by Eugie Foster, read by Tina Connolly. Previously ran as #PC28 and first published by Cricket Magazine. Rated G.

podcastle.org/2025/10/07/p...
#PC912: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Tanuki-Kettle by Eugie Foster, read by Tina Connolly. Previously ran as #PC28 and first published by Cricket Magazine. Rated G. When Hisa was a baby, her mother called in a soothsayer to cast her daughter’s horoscope. The old woman pulled out her astrology charts and consulted them while incense turned the air blue with perfumed smoke. That day, the fortuneteller had a headache and was in a black mood. Though Hisa’s mother brought her a cup of hot, green tea and fanned her sweating brow, the old woman continued to scowl. “This child will be too bold for her own good,” the fortuneteller grumbled. “Is there nothing I can do?” asked Hisa’s distraught mother. “I could hire tutors to teach her the folly of brashness.” “That is not sufficient.” The soothsayer’s eyes lit upon the brimming teapot. “She must grow up to be a lowly tea girl.”
October 9, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by PodCastle
bethgoder.bsky.social
"Mycelium" is out at Podcastle.

The narration is wonderful and gives such a voice to the story. I'm so grateful to narrator Tatiana Grey and the whole @podcastle.org team for the amazing work they did on this story.

podcastle.org/2025/09/30/p...
PodCastle 911: Mycelium - PodCastle
Mycelium by Beth Goder   I only travel to the golden head when the dragonflies are in season. It’s Piack and me this year, rafting up the river past the lilies and arched trees. While I steer us throu...
podcastle.org
October 2, 2025 at 12:02 AM
podcastle.org
#PC911: Mycelium by Beth Goder, read by Tatiana Grey. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Rated PG.

podcastle.org/2025/09/30/p...
#PC911: Mycelium by Beth Goder, read by Tatiana Grey. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Rated PG. I only travel to the golden head when the dragonflies are in season. It’s Piack and me this year, rafting up the river past the lilies and arched trees. While I steer us through the river’s gentle snarls, he sings about lost keys to pass the time — he’s always had a thing about lost keys and the doors they’ll never open, the places we’ll never find. “Are you going to eat what the head gives you?” asks Piack. He’s one year older than I am — nineteen. With the sun behind him, his form swims in light. The dragonflies buzz around us, brush their wings against our faces.
October 3, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Reposted by PodCastle
escapeartists.net
Dear Patreon subscribers: we’re aware of the multiple Patreon notifications/emails. We’re working on it. We recommend you turn off notifications for the moment and, if you can, set up a filter for emails. Please bear with us 😩
October 1, 2025 at 7:53 PM
podcastle.org
PodCastle enthusiasts! We're getting reports of hundreds of notification emails being sent by Patreon and have received them ourselves.

We're aware of it and are working on it.
escapeartists.net Escape Artists Foundation @escapeartists.net · Oct 1
Dear Patreon subscribers: we’re aware of the multiple Patreon notifications/emails. We’re working on it. We recommend you turn off notifications for the moment and, if you can, set up a filter for emails. Please bear with us 😩
October 1, 2025 at 7:57 PM
podcastle.org
#PC910: Tusker Blue by Lalini Shanela Ranaraja, read by Shweta Adhyam. Previously Published in Strange Horizons. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for animal cruelty, blood, and suicide.

podcastle.org/2025/09/23/p...
PC910: Tusker Blue by Lalini Shanela Ranaraja, read by Shweta Adhyam. Previously Published in Strange Horizons. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for animal cruelty, blood, and suicide. You still remember the first time Hailé visited the pharmacy, because that was the day the rogue battle elephant overturned the village water tank and flooded five stores on Sacred Heart Road. The pharmacy was one of them, and you were bailing it out with a plastic jug, swearing a blue streak, when the bells jangled over the door. Without turning, you shouted, “As you can see, the pharmacy is closed today!” “Please help me,” begged a voice hoarse with smoke, and you plunged your arm into the yellow water and cursed Raj, as you’d done frequently since the wedding, for leaving you to handle customers along with everything else. “If you just walk to Trincomalee Street, the surgeon’s office will be opening soon — ”
September 23, 2025 at 9:46 PM
podcastle.org
#PC909: Resurrection Rum by Stephanie Malia Morris, read by Dominick Rabrun. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content warnings for death, gun violence, and racism

podcastle.org/2025/09/16/p...
#PC909: Resurrection Rum by Stephanie Malia Morris, read by Dominick Rabrun. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content warnings for death, gun violence, and racism ALBEMARLE COUNTY, July 1927: WANTED! One ROBERT HOWARD for the MURDER of JOHN LITTLE. Physical description: NEGRO MALE of lightish hue, aged SEVENTEEN or EIGHTEEN, of LOW STATURE and AVERAGE BUILD, head PEANUT-SHAPED with CLOSE-CROPPED hair. Known to dress above his station in GENTLEMAN’S SUITS, outrageous HANDKERCHIEFS, and WING-TIPPED SHOES (stolen, all). Wanted also for the illegal possession and transport of RESURRECTION RUM across county lines. KNOWN ASSOCIATES: a gang of six or seven Negro rumrunners both MALE and FEMALE variously aged TWELVE to NINETEEN (descriptions, sketches below). DANGEROUS BY ASSOCIATION. REWARD $100 for information leading to hideout and/or capture. Suspect known to be ARMED and HIGHLY DANGEROUS. DO! NOT!! APPROACH!!! Report all sightings to the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office at the following address: ——
September 19, 2025 at 4:16 PM
podcastle.org
#PC908: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson, read by Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy, and Katherine Inskip. Previously ran as #PC722 and first published by Daily Science Fiction. Rated PG-13

podcastle.org/2025/09/09/p...
#PC908: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson, read by Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy, and Katherine Inskip. Previously ran as #PC722 and first published by Daily Science Fiction. Rated PG-13 Once upon a time in a far-off land, in a tiny room, in a tall tower, at the centre of a vast and impenetrable maze, the princess Adrienna cocked her head and frowned. “Who said that?” said the princess. She looked around the tower room, but saw no one. “This isn’t funny. Who’s there?” said the princess. She crouched by the bed. Underneath it she found the chamber pot and a nervous brown spider. The princess shuddered. Straightening up quickly and dusting off her rosy skirts, she paced the circumference of the room, searching every inch.
September 9, 2025 at 12:59 PM