Breaking the Glass Slipper: Women in science fiction, fantasy, and horror

Welcome to our first episode of 2024. Yes, the title’s a quote from our incredible guest. As a podcast dedicated primarily to speculative fiction, we rarely find ourselves taking a deep dive into history. But the growth in popularity of both myths and retellings is bringing with it a new focus on historical periods, and [...]

Folklore and fairy tales can sometimes be inextricably bound up with religion. In the Grimms’ own collection of fairy tales, the Devil turns up and so do angels. ‘The Peasant in Heaven’ as well as ‘The Devil and his Grandmother’ were included alongside more famous tales such as ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Rumpelstiltskin’. With the current appetite [...]

After the last marathon episode, we have kept things more succinct. First up, Charlotte, Lucy, and Megan geek-out about the 2016 SFF Awards season. Women seem to finally be getting their due and we are all kinds of chuffed about it. After all, women have been writing fantastic books for years, so it’s about bloody [...]

We’re honoured to have Isabel Cañas join us on the show as she talks us through not only her fabulous new novel, Vampires of El Norte, but also her experience of breaking into publishing as a Mexican-American writer and the pressure on marginalised creators to produce something “fresh”. Mentioned in this episode: Isabel Cañas is a [...]

Regular listeners will already be familiar with the fabulous RJ Barker who joined us live at Nine Worlds to discuss realistic characters. This week, Charlotte interviews RJ about writing female characters, his favourite genres, and writing characters with disabilities. RJ’s stellar debut, Age of Assassins, combines elements of traditional fantasy with murder mystery and historical fiction. [...]