short fiction Archives - Story Radio Podcast

A terrible thing has happened by Elinora Westfall

It is March 1941 during the Second World War, and a young evacuee, Tabitha, is fascinated by the stories about a famous author who lives nearby.

Content warning: contains references to suicide.

The story is written and read by Elinora Westfall. Influenced by David Bowie, Virginia Woolf and Sally Wainwright, Elinora Westfall is a lesbian writer of stage, screen, fiction, poetry and radio from the UK.

Her novel, Everland, was selected for the Penguin and Random House WriteNow Editorial Programme, and her short films have been selected by Pinewood Studios & Lift-Off Sessions, Cannes Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Camden Fringe Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, while her theatre and audio shows have been selected by The British Library and performed in London’s West End and on Broadway, where she won the award for Best Monologue.

The story was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Music used courtesy of Timbre of Freesound.org

Photo of Virginia Woolf By George Charles Beresford – Filippo Venturi Photography Blog, Public Domain.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50293324

Season 3

Picture of boy in tree, vintage, film camera

Killing the Serpent by Doug Jacquier

A young Australian boy learns some difficult lessons about temptation and faith when he meets another boy from a local religious cult.

This story was written and read by Doug Jacquier. He has lived in many places across Australia, including regional and remote communities, and has travelled extensively overseas. His poems and stories have been published in Australia, the US, the UK and Canada. He blogs at Six Crooked Highways.

This episode was produced by Tabitha Potts.

Recording of artist Jimmie P Rodgers under Creative Commons License 0 from qubodup at Freesound.org

Photo by Vintage Film Pics at Morguefile.com.

Season 3

Waiting for Pilar by Declan Geraghty

In this short story, a man waits in an anonymous hotel room in Madrid drinking beer and watching television while he waits for his lover, Pilar, to arrive.

This story was written by Declan Geraghty. Geraghty is a writer, poet and spoken word performer from Dublin.

It was first published by Epoque Press Ezine 2021.

The story was read by Miki Lentin, and produced by Tabitha Potts.

Sound effects taken from Freesound.org and licensed under the Creative Commons 0 license.

Photo by Pedrojperez at Morguefile.com

Season 3

A Mean Spirit by Joan Treacy

A group of mourners attend a funeral and a wake for a shopkeeper and we learn more about his past and relationships.

This short story was written and read by Joan Treacy.

Joan Treacy has been writing for about five years. She has written many short stories and several of them have been published in Irish magazines. She is a member of Leixlip library writing group and they have helped and encouraged her writing. She is also the author of a horror novel, Orchard House.

Produced by Martin Nathan

Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician, and a railway engineer. His short fiction has been published by Tangent Press, HCE and Grist and his poetry has appeared in Finished Creatures, Erbacce and Aesthetica. His novel – A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing.

Podcast Season 2

Rat Trap by Rebecca Lee

A young female writer is commissioned to write a post about a lethal rat trap for a content mill.

This story was written by Rebecca Lee. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her current project “selfie” is a series of medical poems. Her body of work can be found in The British Medical Journal, CHEST physicians, Dartmouth’s Life Lines and Harvard’s medical school journal, Third Space.

The story was read by Jessica Nettles. Jessica is a voice-over artist and a writer. Her influences range from Ray Bradbury to Flaery O’Coor and Shirley Jackson. She reads as voraciously as she can while balancing her career as an English Instructor and a writer of SouthernGothic and Historical Fantasy. Her first novel is Children of Menlo Park.

She is also featured in the gothic horror anthology, Off the Beaten Path 4 and has a story in the upcoming Georgia Gothic horror anthology produced by the Atlanta Chapter of HWA (Horror Writer’s Association). To hear more of her voice, check out Episode 775 of the horror podcast, Pseudopod, where she reads Michael McDowell’s “Miss Mack.”

To find more about her and her work check out jessicanettlesauthor.com. You also can find her on Twitter @steampunkengl and Instagram steampunkenglish.

The producer was Tabitha Potts.

The cover art is Mouse (1821) by Jean Bernard (1775-1883). Original from The Rijksmuseum. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain Free CC0 Image

Story Radio is taking a short break in the New Year so we will be back on February 1st. We’d like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday and New Year.

Season 2

Photograph of Waterloo Station clock by Martin Nathan

Jacqueline by Tatum Anderson

A young woman leaves Jamaica for the UK, hoping to emulate her cousin Jacqueline by working as a nurse. When she arrives, nothing is quite as she expected it to be.

Jacqueline was written by Tatum Anderson. She is a journalist and writer from London. She received an MA In Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London and is now working on a PhD there in the autumn.

She has recently completed her first novel about Jamaican soldiers in the First World War which was Highly Commended in the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award 2020. She is now working on a second novel.

The reader is Juliet Jordon. She is a recent Drama, Applied Theatre and Performance graduate. She is doing an MFA (Master in Fine Arts) in directing. She studied Acting at Morley College London on the Performing Arts HND course.

This story was directed and produced by Martin Nathan. Martin Nathan has worked as a labourer, showman, pancake chef, fire technician, and a railway engineer. His short fiction has been published by Tangent Press, HCE and Grist and his poetry has appeared in Finished Creatures, Erbacce and Aesthetica. His novel A Place of Safety is published by Salt Publishing.

Website: http://www.martinnathan.co.uk

The music and image used in this episode are both reproduced with the permission of Martin Nathan.

Podcast Season 2

Left Watching by R D Mouton

Four men, friends since childhood, walk into a wood, where they find a pile of bones. This strange discovery will change their lives forever.

RD Mouton is an American Writer and Freelancer. He is currently pursuing a career in writing and completing his current projects, a short story collection and a young adult novel. He can be found on Twitter as @RDMakes.

Photo by Koan courtesy of Morguefile.com

Sound effect used are adapted from woodsbirds.wav by Sparrer on Freesound.org under the Attribution License

The producer is Tabitha Potts

Podcast

St Esteban of the Children by E E King

Esteban, finder of lost things, awakes in his grave on November second to return home to his family for Dia De Los Muertos. But he overstays his allotted night and cannot find his way back. Time is running out, for if he stays out too long, he will be forgotten and fade away into nothingness.

This story originally appeared in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores in 2018.

E.E. King is a painter, performer, writer, and biologist – She’ll do anything that won’t pay the bills, especially if it involves animals.

Ray Bradbury called her stories, “marvelously inventive, wildly funny, and deeply thought-provoking. I cannot recommend them highly enough.”

King has won numerous various awards and fellowships for art, writing, and environmental research.

She’s been published widely, most recently in Clarkesworld, Flame Tree, Cosmic Roots, and Eldritch shores and On Spec. One of her tales is on Tangent’s recommended reading 2019.

Her books include Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife, Pandora’s Card Game, The Truth of Fiction, and The Adventures of Emily Finfeather.

Check out paintings, writing, musings, and books at:

www.elizabetheveking.com

https://twitter.com/ElizabethEvKing

amazon.com/author/eeking

Image copyright Greg Willis adapted with his permission. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Music used in this podcast is adapted (extracts used and fades applied) from:

La llorona by Trío La Aurora licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

Podcast

A Chicken that Shares our Values by Daniel Jeffreys

A Chicken that Shares our Values looks at the bipolar experience, how a simple phrase or marketing slogan can plunge us into the super-charged, symbolic world. As meaning-machines how and when do we let go?

Daniel’s stories have appeared in Esquire, Ambit, The London Magazine, Litro and The Lampeter Review. He is in the third years of a PhD in the weird and eerie and completing a novel Highly Strung

Read more on his blog Conan the librarian: https://conanlibrarianlondon.wordpress.com/

Photo by Spudgun67 / CC BY-SA

Podcast

Call Bird by Tabitha Potts

In this short story, two city-dwellers move to a remote house in the countryside and are unsettled by their experiences […]