K. Ceres Wright received her master’s degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and her published cyberpunk novel, Cog, was her thesis for the program. Her short stories, poems, and articles have appeared on the Strange Horizons and Amazing Stories websites; in the FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction; Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler (Locus Award winner; Hugo Award nominee); and Sycorax’s Daughters (Bram Stoker Award nominee); among others. Her most recent publication is Too Old to Dance but Young Enough to Rock ’n’ Roll, a post apocalyptic military sci-fi novella she cowrote with L. Gene Brown, a Vietnam War veteran. Ms. Wright is the founder and president of Diverse Writers and Artists of Speculative Fiction, an educational group for creatives. 

This story first appeared in Sycorax's Daughters (2017).

Narration by: Donna Schmidt

Donna Schmidt lives in Seattle, recently retired from a career in tech, now spending her days playing violin, singing, finding gigs for her band, drawing, sewing and gardening. Oh, and talking. Because she really likes to talk and hear the sound of her own voice. Pretty embarrassing, right? But hey, it sure comes in handy when you get the chance to do voice narration! Plus, you get to play with fun toys like microphones and audio equipment.  

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Main fiction: "Stars in a Grave, Stars in a Skull"

Jeremy Szal was born in 1995 and was raised by wild dingoes, which should explain a lot. He writes epic fantasy and dark space opera of a character-driven, morally grey nature. His main series is the Common trilogy from Gollancz/Hachette, which includes Stormblood, Blindspace, and Woflskin, about a drug harvested from alien DNA that makes users permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. He’s the author of over fifty short stories, translated into fifteen languages, many of which appear in his short fiction collection Broken Stars. He was the editor for the Hugo-winning StarShipSofa until 2020 and has a BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing from UNSW. He carves out a living in Sydney, Australia with his family, where he loves watching weird movies, eating Japanese food, exploring cities, learning languages, cold weather and dark humour. Find him at https://jeremyszal.substack.com/  or @JeremySzal

This story first appeared in Broken Stars (2024).

Narration by: Will Stagl

Will Stagl lives in Tucson Arizona and is a proud member of the StarShipSofa team. This month you’ll likely find him tearing through some fantasy epic at a local café or waiting for the next sci-fi TV show to air.

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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This story originally appeared in Wild & Wishful, Dark & Dreaming: The Worlds of Alethea Kontis (2016).

Alethea Kontis is an actress, storm chaser, and New York Times best-selling author. She has received the Scribe Award, the Garden State Teen Book Award, and is a two-time winner of the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award. She was twice nominated for both the Andre Norton Nebula and Dragon Award. Alethea narrates stories for multiple award-winning online magazines and does freelance work for Writing the Other. Born in Vermont, Alethea currently resides on the Space Coast of Florida where she watches K-dramas with her teddy bear, Charlie. Together they are ARMY, VVS, and Black Roses.

Narration by: Will Stagl

Will Stagl lives in Tucson Arizona and is a proud member of the StarShipSofa team. This month you’ll likely find him tearing through some fantasy epic at a local café or waiting for the next sci-fi TV show to air.

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This story originally appeared in Punktown (2000).

Jeffrey Thomas’s books include Punktown, Deadstock, Blue War, The American, and The Unnamed Country. He has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award and John W. Campbell Award, and his stories have been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories 2022, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors, Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). Thomas lives in Massachusetts.

Narration by: Christina Rau

Christina M. Rau, The Yoga Poet, leads Meditate, Move, & Create workshops for various organizations in person and online. Her collections include How We Make Amends, What We Do To Make Us Whole, and the Elgin Award-winning Liberating The Astronauts. She moderates the Women’s Poetry Listserv and has served as Poet in Residence for Oceanside Library (NY) since 2020. Her poetry airs on Destinies radio show (WUSB) and appears in various literary journals like FillingStation and The Disappointed Housewife while her prose has appeared in Punk Monk Magazine and Reader’s Digest. During her downtime, she watches the Game Show Network. http://www.christinamrau.com

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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Owen Kerr has been a writer, freelance editor, and indie game designer since 1999, but don't tell his mom; she thinks he's selling feet pix on MostlyPans. His most recent projects include lore for an OSR setting, a full-bore post-apocalyptic fantasy game (Splintered Moon - PbtA), and his self-published fantasy novel, Confessions of an Outlaw Locksmith. If you liked "Cycles," check out his LinkTree for more! https://linktr.ee/chantedevening

Narration by: Owen Kerr

Owen Kerr is also a voice actor and reader.

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Rudy Vener's stories have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, StarshipSofa, Sally Port Magazine, and The Beast Hunt Anthology Vol 1. He has won Connecticut's Tassy Walden Award for New Voices in Children's Literature, and been a finalist in the Jim Baem Memorial Short Story Award. Rudy is a retired software engineer, former online pizza marketing entrepreneur, and cheese lover. He lives with his family and two cats in North Haven, Connecticut where he is hard at work on more short stories and novels. Readers can visit him at www.rudyvener.com

This story is original to StarShipSofa.

Narration by: Anthony Babington

Some say Anthony Babington is a myth to frighten small children. Others say he is a government experiment gone horribly right. Both are correct, and both are wrong. From his secret volcano lair in Minnesota, he narrates podcasts, voice-acts, and leases his soul to corporate America. Find him on Bluesky and Mastodon as @AlephBaker.

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis 

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Kelsey Hutton is a Métis author from Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation, also known as Winnipeg, Canada. Kelsey was born in an even snowier city than she lives in now (“up north,” as they say in Winnipeg). She also used to live in Brazil as a kid. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Augur Magazine and others. When she’s not beading or cooking, you can find her at KelseyHutton.com, on Instagram at @KelseyHuttonAuthor, or on Twitter/X at @KelHuttonAuthor.

This story originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Jan/Feb 2024.

Narration by: Christina M. Rau

Christina M. Rau, The Yoga Poet, leads Meditate, Move, & Create workshops for various organizations in person and online. Her collections include How We Make Amends, What We Do To Make Us Whole, and the Elgin Award-winning Liberating The Astronauts. She moderates the Women’s Poetry Listserv and has served as Poet in Residence for Oceanside Library (NY) since 2020. Her poetry airs on Destinies radio show (WUSB) and appears in various literary journals like fillingStation and The Disappointed Housewife while her prose has appeared in Punk Monk Magazine and Reader’s Digest. During her downtime, she watches the Game Show Network. http://www.christinamrau.com

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Jay Caselberg is an Australian author and poet whose work has appeared around the world and been translated into several languages. He currently resides in Germany and can be found at Caselberg.net.

This story originally appeared in Borderlands (Australia), January 2006.

Narrated by Randal L. Schwartz

Randal L. Schwartz is best well known for his seminal books on the Perl programming language that helped make the world wide web possible and popular. He produced a weekly audio and video podcast on open source software, but has given that up after 13 years to get those five hours per week back again. Between the podcast, and bouncing all over the world teaching programming and speaking at conferences, he’s no stranger to the limelight. He enjoys pulling out his gear to record yet another narration, and likens it to “getting to read bedtime stories to the kids I never had”, and looks forward to future assignments

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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K. A. Teryna is an award-winning author and illustrator. She was born in two places at once, one of which is beyond the Arctic Circle. Her fiction has been translated from Russian into six languages. English translations of her stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Reactor, Apex, F&SF, Podcastle, and elsewhere. Her English-language short story collection Black Hole Heart and Other Stories has been published by Fairwood Press. As of late, Chekhov the Cat has become K.A. Teryna's co-author. He's in charge of keeping her warm and firmly in her seat. K.A. Teryna's website is www.k-a-teryna.blogspot.com.

The English language translation of "The Errata" by Alex Shvartsman originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, March/April 2023.

Narration by: Tahereh Safavi

Tahereh Safavi is an improv kid and your biggest fan. She runs the Ubergroup, a 501(c)3 nonprofit providing low-cost fine arts education for adults. The Ubergroup offers university-level coursework, support, and networking for all writing-related art formats (including but not limited to: commercial and literary novels, stage and screen plays, short fiction, comics, nonfiction and academic, podcasts and webseries, picture books, poetry, IP writing, and some writing-adjacent arts such as acting and illustration) at a pace suitable for adults with full-time jobs and families. Alumni of the Ubergroup enjoy access to table reads for spec scripts, peer development of unsold work, and help editing projects under contract to meet agent/editor/producer requirements. The Ubergroup accepts writers in the English language from around the globe. Check out theubergroup.org for more.

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M

The author of eight novels and two short story collections, Richard Dansky is widely regarded as a leading expert on video game narrative and writing. He has written for franchises including The Division, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, and many others, and was also a key contributor to White Wolf’s classic World of Darkness horror RPG setting. His upcoming projects include the novel Nightmare Logic from Falstaff Dread, the graphic novel Bridgewater from Delcourt, and the nonfiction book The Video Game Writer’s Guide To Surviving an Industry That Hates You.

This story is original to StarShipSofa

Narration by: Kevin Craybould

Kevin Craybould is a newly emerging writer and actor with a background in tech. His upcoming techno thriller Who is Sarah Smith is due out from Ever After Books in 2027. Find him at Metaphors are Lies (kcraybould.substack.com). He also reviews for Bookstack (newbooks.substack.co ). He is a proud alumni of the Ubergroup, an educational non-profit that provides college-level writing courses for working adults, and recommends anyone who wants to learn to write check them out: theubergroup.org

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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Robert Guffey is a lecturer in the Department of English at California State University – Long Beach. His books include The Expectant Mother Disinformation Handbook (Madness Heart Press, 2024), Cryptopolis & Other Stories (Lethe Press, 2024), Dead Monkey Rum (Planet Bizarro Press, 2023), Operation Mindfuck (OR Books, 2022), Widow of the Amputation & Other Weird Crimes (Eraserhead Press, 2021), Bela Lugosi’s Dead (Crossroad Press, 2021), Until the Last Dog Dies (Night Shade/Skyhorse, 2017), Chameleo (OR Books, 2015), and Spies & Saucers (PS Publishing, 2014). A graduate of the famed Clarion Writers Workshop in Seattle, he's written for numerous publications, among them The Believer, The Evergreen Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Mailer Review, Rosebud, Salon.com, and TOR.com. In 2024 he was nominated for the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Award for his nonfiction work investigating extremist rightwing movements such as QAnon and Christian Nationalism. Forthcoming from Headpress is his nonfiction cinema book, Hollywood Haunts the World: An Investigation into the Cinema of Occulted Taboos, which covers one hundred years of film history. His website is Cryptoscatology.com.

This story originally appeared in Flurb #7, 2009.

Narrated by: Doni Nicoll-Duir

Doni Nicoll-Duir (nickel-dar) is originally from the Western Slope of Colorado. He has lived in and out of Arizona his whole life and now finds himself settling down in Tucson, AZ. Doni works in the renewable energy sector as a design engineer and permitting specialist. When Doni isn’t working on saving the planet, one rooftop at a time, or trying to keep up with his teenage daughter, he can be found cooking, hiking or playing board games with his friends at one of the local breweries.

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Gustavo Bondoni is a novelist and short story writer with over five hundred stories published in fifteen countries, in seven languages. He has published several science fiction novels including two trilogies, six monster books, a dark military fantasy and a thriller. His short fiction is collected in Thin Air (2023), Pale Reflection (2020), Off the Beaten Path (2019), Tenth Orbit and Other Faraway Places (2010) and Virtuoso and Other Stories (2011).

In 2019, Gustavo was awarded second place in the Jim Baen Memorial Contest and in 2018 he received a Judges Commendation (and second place) in The James White Award. He was also a 2019 finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest.

His website is at www.gustavobondoni.com

This story is original to StarShipSofa.

Narrated by: Alethea Kontis

Alethea Kontis is an actress, storm chaser, and New York Times bestselling author. She has received the Scribe Award, the Garden State Teen Book Award, and is a two-time winner of the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award. She was twice nominated for both the Andre Norton Nebula and Dragon Award. Alethea narrates stories for multiple award-winning online magazines and does freelance work for Writing the Other. Born in Vermont, Alethea currently resides on the Space Coast of Florida where she watches K-dramas with her teddy bear, Charlie. Together they are ARMY, VVS, and Black Roses. 

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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Hugo- and Nebula nominated author Marie Vibbert’s short fiction has appeared over 90 times in top magazines like Nature, Analog, and Clarkesworld, and been translated into Czech, Chinese and Vietnamese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, was long listed by the British Science Fiction Award and her work has been called “everything science fiction should be” by the Oxford Culture Review. She also writes poetry, comics, and computer games. By day she is a computer programmer in Cleveland, Ohio.

This story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2019.

Narrated by: Christina Rau

Christina M. Rau, The Yoga Poet, leads Meditate, Move, & Create workshops for various organizations in person and online. Her collections include How We Make Amends, What We Do To Make Us Whole, and the Elgin Award-winning Liberating The Astronauts. She moderates the Women’s Poetry Listserv and has served as Poet in Residence for Oceanside Library (NY) since 2020. Her poetry airs on Destinies radio show (WUSB) and appears in various literary journals like fillingStation and The Disappointed Housewife while her prose has appeared in Punk Monk Magazine and Reader’s Digest. During her downtime, she watches the Game Show Network. http://www.christinamrau.com

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Libby Cudmore is the author of The Big Rewind (William Morrow 2016) and Negative Girl (Datura 2024) as well as the Wade & Jacks series in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine, and Tough. Her work has been published in Orca, Dark Waters, Stone's Throw and the Anthony Award-nominated Lawyers Guns & Money: Crime Fiction Inspired By the Songs of Warren Zevon, which she co-edited with Art Taylor.

She is the recipient of the Eleventh Hour Innaugural Literary Prize, the Shamus Award and the Black Orchid Novella Prize, as well as a finalist for the 2025 International Thriller Writers Award for Best Standalone Mystery.

This story originally appeared in Orca, A Literary Journal, #13, Spring/Summer 2023.

Narrated by: Theo Kipnis

Theo Kipnis sits slowly in a red and pink room, not choosing, not doing. Horseshoes and dominoes line the casements and built-in shelves, on which framed pictures cherish quiet images of ancestors and cartoon cats. Again and again, he slows in the small room, feeling the steady shadow around him drip through his vision. He has wings on his tongue and a tiny, pumping heart in each eye socket. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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Alex Shvartsman (Brooklyn, NY) is the author of Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019) fantasy novels. Over 120 of his stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, et al. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction and was a three-time finalist for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction.

His translations from Russian have appeared in F&SF, Clarkesworld, Tor.com, Analog, Asimov’s, et al. Alex has edited over a dozen anthologies, including the long-running Unidentified Funny Objects series.

This story originally appeared in Galaxy's Edge, no. 25, March 2017.

Narrated by: Will Stagl

Will Stagl lives in Tucson Arizona and is a proud member of the StarShipSofa team. This month you'll likely find him tearing through The Devils by Joe Abercrombie at a local café or waiting for the next installment of Murderbot to air.

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Pedro Iniguez is a Mexican-American Bram Stoker, Elgin, and Rhysling Award-nominated horror and science-fiction writer from Los Angeles, California. He is the author of Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future, and Fever Dreams of a Parasite, among others. Forthcoming books include his SFF collection, Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories, and his debut picture book, The Fib, which are slated for 2025 releases.

This story originally appeared in Infinite Constellations, 2023.

Narrated by: Mary Murphy

Mary is a New York based actor/voice-over artist. She loves the world of audio drama and is delighted to be back on board the StarShipSofa. She has performed in theatre, film, TV, animation, radio, and video games. A few of her recent credits include the one-woman play An Evening With Lola Montez, It’s A Wonderful Life, a streamed performance of the piece Near Nellie Bly, Divination of The Three for Asheville Fringe, and the audio dramas Frontier Gentleman, Chinook, and Newfield. She can be heard voicing various characters for Disney, GoKidGo, LeapFrog, the Center For New American Media, Audible, and Audimance. She has also been a regular performer on the audio drama series Fireside Mystery Theatre, The NoSleep Podcast, The Wicked Library, To the Manor Borne By Robots, and Campfire Radio Theater. marymurphyonline.com

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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Maggie Slater’s (she/her) speculative fiction has appeared in Apex Magazine, Metaphorosis, and Redivider, among other venues. She lives in an 1800s farmhouse in New England with two half-tamed boys, one half-trained dog, her husband, her parents, and at least one benign ghost. For more information about her and her current projects, visit her blog at maggieslater.com or find her on Instagram: @maggiedot_writes or on Bluesky: @maggiedotwrites.

"Any Day But Today..." originally appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, #79, 2020.

Narrated by: Zed Hope Simon

Zed Hope Simon (they/them) is a Brooklyn-based performer, playwright, and fight director. Their short plays have been produced at various digital and live festivals throughout New York City and around the United States and their first full-length play, Watchlist, received a workshop production at The Tank in February 2020. They have previously performed with Alterra Productions interactive theatre company and help coordinate the annual New York Summer Sling stage combat workshop for the Society of American Fight Directors. Zed has hosted podcasts covering film, tv, and video games for Whirlwind Podcasts, Post Show Recaps, Rob has a Podcast, and Arcade Pizza, and can be found streaming games on YouTube at youtube.com/@hardrockhope. For more, follow Zed on Bluesky @hardrockhope or visit www.zedhopesimon.com

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Tina Connolly writes fantastical stories for kids, teens, and grown-ups. Some of them are serious and some of them involve flying bananas. Her books include the Ironskin and Seriously Wicked series, the collection On the Eyeball Floor, and the official Choose Your Own Adventure book Glitterpony Farm. She has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards. She also co-hosts Escape Pod, narrates stories, and runs the intermittent flash fiction podcast Toasted Cake. Find her at tinaconnolly.com.

This story originally appeared in Helix #9, 2008.

Narrated by: Tahereh Safavi

Tahereh Safavi is an improv kid and your biggest fan. She runs the Ubergroup, a 501(c)3 nonprofit providing low-cost fine arts education for adults. The Ubergroup offers university-level coursework, support, and networking for all writing-related art formats (including but not limited to: commercial and literary novels, stage and screen plays, short fiction, comics, nonfiction and academic, podcasts and webseries, picture books, poetry, IP writing, and some writing-adjacent arts such as acting and illustration) at a pace suitable for adults with full-time jobs and families. Check out theubergroup.org for more.

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Sturgis

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Akis Linardos is a writer of bizarre things, a biomedical AI scientist, and maybe human. He’s also a Greek that hops across countries as his career and exploration urges demand. Find his words at Apex, Strange Horizons, Uncharted, Heartlines Spec, and visit his lair for more: https://linktr.ee/akislinardos

This story originally appeared in The Colored Lens #49, Autumn 2023.

Narrated by: Doni Nicoll

Doni Nicoll-Duir (nickel-dar) is originally from the Western Slope of Colorado. He has lived in and out of Arizona his whole life and now finds himself settling down in Tucson, AZ. Doni works in the renewable energy sector as a design engineer and permitting specialist. When Doni isn’t working on saving the planet, one rooftop at a time, or trying to keep up with his teenage daughter, he can be found cooking, hiking or playing board games with his friends at one of the local breweries. This is his second narration for StarShipSofa.

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Bogi's bios can be found scattered all over the internet. In the spirit of cooperation demonstrated in the story, Bogi would like to ask you to take a few moments to engage in a tangible act of solidarity with people experiencing state violence and/or oppression: Palestinians, Ukrainians, Roma in Hungary and the world over, and more — the list is very long, but maybe together we can make it shorter and help each

other.

This story originally appeared in Life Beyond Us Susan Forest, Lucas K. Law, and Julia Novakova, eds.

Narrated by: Kaila Moles

Kaila Moles is a Pacific Northwest native who relocated to Tucson, AZ in 2019. She is a mother to one beautiful daughter and spends her days working with her patients who struggle with trauma. She is a psychotherapist who specializes in trauma, addictions and postpartum diagnoses. In her free time, she enjoys baking, dancing, and writing music and poetry. This is her third narration for StarShipSofa.

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H Stur

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