Sandra McDonald is an avid writer, reader, foster mom, and cat wrangler. A military veteran and veteran teacher, she is the author of several books and several dozen published short stories in magazines and anthologies. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has won awards for stories that explore the intersections of gender, duty, and science fiction. You can sometimes find her on social media, but more likely she is stuck in a minivan in a school pickup line in Florida, scribbling story ideas on the back of store receipts.

This story originally appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, July 2023.

Narration by: Lucy Simpson

Lucy Simpson is a caregiver, published poet, artist, and sometimes voice actor. She is winding her way through the byzantine maze that is her first novel with the invaluable assistance of the Ubergroup, which offers low-cost fine arts education for adults. Check out theubergroup.org for more.

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History By Amy H Sturgis

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By day, Lori Selke is an ESL instructor (and stealth adjunct composition instructor) who lives in Oakland, California. But beneath that wholesome and mild-mannered facade lurks a zine veteran, an education and social justice academic, a queer writer and activist, and a general thorn in the side of normativity. Their fiction has been previously published inNightmare Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Asimov's; their nonfiction has appeared at NPR.org, Offbeat Home, The Billfold, and the SF Weekly, as well as the open-access academic journals Refuge and the International Journal of Human Rights Education.

This story originally appeared in Outlaw Bodies (2012).

Narration by: Will Stagl

Will Stagl lives in Tucson, Arizona and is a proud member of the StarShipSofa team. He’s like to kick off the new year by inviting any listeners interested in narration to contact him at williamstagl@gmail.com to join our stellar team of volunteer voice actors.

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Caren Gussoff Sumption lives in a nest of books, knitting, and rescue cats, south of Seattle, WA. The author of six books (most recently, her postcolonial, deep space, far-future comedy of manners, So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion) and more than 100 short stories, Caren received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 2008, was the Carl Brandon Society’s Octavia E. Butler Scholar at Clarion West.

Caren is autistic, Romany, Jewish, and can't carry a tune (she tries anyway, gods help us all). Find her online at www.spitkitten.com

This story originally appeared in Interzone #253.

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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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

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/starshipsofa.

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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.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/starshipsofa.

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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.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/starshipsofa.

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