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Thrill to the adventures of the past and visions of the future. Featuring science fiction, fantasy, horror and the supernatural, short stories, ancient tales, myth and folklore from our short story submissions, with author interviews and occasional special features about publishing and writing. Flame Tree is independent, and encourages the comprehensive understanding of all people, and all cultures.
23 Episodes
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September’s podcast guest star is author and editor V. Castro! V. Castro is the celebrated author of Mestiza Blood, The Queen of the Cicadas and several short stories in our anthologies. She finds her inspirations in Mexican folklore and the urban legends of Texas. In this episode, recorded at London Book Fair, Nick and V. chat all about their passion for storytelling, folklore and dark fiction. And the best part? You can hear more from V. next month in our LIVE AND SPOOKY c...
In today’s episode, we are taking a look into the veil between worlds, the margin between the living and the dead. Is it really so clear which side is which? Or is this veil thinning all the time, in memories we inherit, and in those moments when we brush close to the other side? Featuring ‘Our Bones Were the Mortar’ by Anjali Patel (01.25), read by Cheryl S. Ntumy. A story from our African Ghost collection, which follows a woman who wants nothing to do with her family’s legacy of necro...
As any fans of Flame Tree will know already, we pride ourselves on being a publisher of speculative fiction. We’ve covered the founding genres of SFF on this podcast already but perhaps we’ve given slightly more attention to our horror and fantasy short stories, but not today. Today we’re journeying to the future on the back of two of our Science Fiction stories. Brace yourself for worlds where technology has slipped beyond human control, and crime reigns in the skies. Content Warning: This e...
Transformation lies at the heart of every great story. Sometimes this takes the shape of a mentality shift or character development, but today’s stories examine transformation in its most literal meaning - the physical. We’re talking skin to fur and nail to claw - humans who have been forced to succumb to the beast within. Featuring ‘The Stag’ by Kate Wilmot (01.34), read by Olivia. A reinvention of an ancient tale that was already bursting with gore, revenge and extreme emotion. ...
Today we're diving into the shadows cast by crowns, where love and power dance their oldest, most dangerous waltz. Because here's what Disney never tells you: every court has its secrets, and every crown sits heavy with the weight of what rulers will do to protect what they love. Featuring Naked Villainy by Joshua K. Haarstad (02.31), read by Nathan Chatelier. A story about a king who discovers that protecting his son means rewriting the very nature of truth itself. This tale can be fou...
In our August Special episode Olivia delves into the horror genre with the guidance of award winning authors and editors, Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan. Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan were the editors of Flame Tree’s Folk Horror. A collection of stories that covers a wide range of mythologies and dark corners from around the world. Five of its short stories were selected from open submissions and the remaining twelve were commissioned from authors including Neil Gaiman, John Connolly, Adam L...
A creator god, a trickster folk hero, a wily spider and a heroic symbol of resistance, Anansi is a fascinating figure within West African folklore. This episode contains both an original folkloric story and a modern depiction of Anansi from our Myths, Gods & Immortals series. Featuring: ‘The Secrets of Jamestown Lighthouse’ by Benjamin Cyril Arthur (01.15), read by Cheryl S. Ntumy. In this story we’ve got a gang of kids who are sneaking around, sticking their noses into things that ...
Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual violence. What happens when someone who was never supposed to speak suddenly finds their voice? Today we're exploring that question through two very different lenses - one brutally contemporary, one ancient as the changing seasons. Both ask us to listen to voices that were meant to stay silent forever. Featuring: ‘Vessels and Warnings’ by Gabrielle Emem Harry (1.45), narrated by Cheryl S. Ntumy. A powerful narrative where...
Everyone knows Achilles - the golden warrior, the rage of the Greeks, the heel that doomed him. But nobody talks about Achilles the toddler, the little boy who was scared of water. Both stories in this episode will help listeners consider Achilles, the man, not just his life but what he left behind… Featuring: ‘How Achilles Grew Up’ by Kenzie Lappin (02.17), read by Nathan Chatelier. A story that looks beyond the Achilles of marble statues and towards the deep emotion of his story...
After three months of the Myth & Fiction Podcast, we thought it was about time we heard from you! We asked for your questions and comments about the show and today we’re answering them all. Join Olivia, Nick, and Bea as they respond to your thoughts in this special Q&A episode. If you have more questions for the Myth & Fiction team, please use our feedback form, we’d love to hear from you: https://flametr.com/44poBFK Shilpa Varma’s blog, Between Worlds: https://flametr.com/44Zgjni...
Today's episode takes us into the spaces between sounds - where silence isn't empty, but hungry. These two stories explore the creatures that mirror us so perfectly they might not be creatures at all, but reflections of what we keep buried beneath our civilized surfaces. Featuring: 'No Strings' by Ramsey Campbell (01.52), narrated by Nathan Chatelier. A contemporary horror story that follows radio host Phil Linford as he encounters a street musician whose performance proves more dangerous tha...
We’ve all heard of H.G. Wells. The famed British author, best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Many of which can be found in Flame Tree’s anthologies. However, have you ever thought about what would happen if you used a time machine to travel back in time to meet the man behind those well-known words? Featuring: ‘Shaping Things to Come’ by Dominick Cancilla (01.00), narrated by Nathan Chatelier. We found this one in our collection ‘Time Travelling Short Stories’. ...
In today’s episode, which is a couple of days ahead of the Buck Moon, we are presenting you with two moon-tales. Stories, where the night dances with ancient power as the moon watches. Featuring: ‘Shattered Moon, Hungry Sea’ by Elou Carroll (02:13), narrated by Olivia. A story where a child’s curiosity unleashes oceanic fury, proving that some jewellery should never be touched, and some secrets should stay sewn into the sky. Borrowed from Flame Tree’s ‘Moon Falling’ co...
Today’s episode carries us East through two short stories. These stories are united by a powerful motif - water as memory. In both, water surmounts to more, it comes to represent the enduring presence of the natural world. Offset by human mortality and the quickening of time associated with growing up. Featuring: ‘Waiting for Karaga’ by Amal Singh (00:55), narrated by Shilpa Varma. A touching short story, borrowed from our ‘Shadows on the Water’ collection, that narrates the relationshi...
Our second monthly Special invites our listeners into the world of publishing, with a particular focus on the Middle East. Recorded at London Book Fair 2025, Olivia speaks to Trevor Naylor - a writer and publisher who has over 40 years of experience in the book industry. Though his career has taken him to over 90 countries, he spent decades based in Cairo, Egypt. We catch up with him as he’s working on his latest project, a book about Egyptian Gods and mythology. This conversation is fu...
This week’s episode brings us two strange stories from the sea. The sea offers the perfect setting for short stories: it’s dramatic, vast and by extension mysterious. We only know a fraction of what actually lives in its depths. No wonder then, that it captured the imagination of the authors featured in this episode. Featuring: ‘Over the Side’ by W.W. Jacobs (00.46), narrated by Olivia. This story was first published in 1905 and describes the eerie, supernatural experience of a sailor w...
This week, we're slipping into something magical - two stories bound by a common thread: enchanted dresses. One bringing life, the other death. Together, you could say they weave a pattern of love, loss, and transformation. Featuring: ‘The Wedding Dress’ by Cheryl S. Ntumy (00.51), narrated by the author herself, has been selected from her collection Black Friday - a stunning anthology of speculative stories from Ghana, Botswana and South Africa. This particular tale imagines a wedding ...
On this week’s episode of the Flame Tree Myth & Fiction Podcast, we feature two powerful short stories linked by their discussions of motherhood - but don’t be mistaken, these stories are anything but sweet. Featuring: ‘Pegasus’ by Danai Christopoulou (00.50), narrated by Amanda Benzecry. A narrative that follows the famed pegasus, through its creation, violent birth and its resulting vow of revenge. This story can be found in Medusa, a book published last year in our Myths, Gods &a...
The first of our monthly specials! In this week’s episode, Olivia revisits her conversation with the editors of The Open Heart & Short Stories by Catherine Wells, Patrick Parrinder and Emelyne Godfrey. Recorded at The London Book Fair, this episode is full of insights and revelations about the often overlooked authorial work of H.G. Wells’s wife. The Open Heart is one of the latest books to come out in our Beyond & Within series. It collates Catherine Wells’s previously published work...
In this week’s episode of Flame Tree’s Myth & Fiction podcast, we are again visiting the horror genre but this time we are honing in on how the human mind and often madness can connect itself to the supernatural. Essentially, two short stories that populate the subgenre of psychological horror. Featuring: ‘He Will Hear Us Coming’ by Anna Ziegelhof (00.38), narrated by Amanda Benzecry. A story about a young woman’s homecoming from a mental institution and her quest to discover the truth ab...
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