Literary Fiction for Your Ears: Podcast Recommendations

Literary fiction that only works in audio form, curated by the creator of "Wyrd Woman"

Podcast artwork for Mabel, Wyrd Woman, The Silt Verses, Gone, and Modes of Thought in Anterran Literature

Curated by:

👉🏽 Amy Lee Lillard (she/her)

Why this theme?

👉🏽 As I created the audio drama Wyrd Woman, I wanted to make something I’d found to be rare: literary fiction that only works in audio form. So this list includes a few of the shows I found in this area. Like literary novels, these shows use different formats and structures, question the lines between reality and fiction, and push us to think and engage.

Whether they're one-person shows like mine, or dramatizations with full casts and production, all are rich, compelling, disquieting, and vying to be your new favorites.

Podcast Picks

Mabel podcast cover art

Mabel

Ana, a home health nurse, is taking care of a 90 year-old woman in an old, isolated house. Ana calls the woman’s granddaughter, Mabel, to ask about some letters she has found. But Mabel doesn’t answer, even as Ana keeps calling... and calling... becoming increasingly desperate, and increasingly convinced of strange happenings around her.

Modes of Thought in Anterran Literature podcast cover art

Modes of Thought in Anterran Literature

A renowned professor leads a class exploring the culture of a newly-discovered ancient civilization. The only issue: there is no proof of the discovery, or the civilization itself. Has the professor, who disappeared for some time before teaching this class, broken with reality? Does it matter, when we get deep-dive lectures into a fascinating culture?

Gone podcast cover art

Gone

A woman wakes one morning to find her wife gone, along with all her neighbors. She records her experience, and her changes — because as much as she fears for and misses her wife, her anger grows. What secrets was she keeping — and did her work at a research lab somehow lead to the sun disappearing?

The Silt Verses podcast cover art

The Silt Verses

Carpenter and Faulkner are two apostles of an outlawed religion, one that offers sacrifices to their river god. As they travel their river to suss out other devotees, they find other dangerous gods (and their even more dangerous acolytes), an investigator looking into illegal deaths for rural religions, and a refugee fleeing her corporate job, which just sacrificed non-performers to their new deity.

Wyrd Woman podcast cover art

Wyrd Woman

This limited series features an isolated woman recording her dreams of strange women across time who become increasingly persistent and desperate through sound. Over nine nights, each woman — old, broken, unnatural, mad, and ugly — becomes a stronger voice and presence through audio production and sound design. And as these women come together, connecting across time and space as worlds die, reality becomes fantasy, past and future meld, and fate binds and beckons.

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Community

🎤 This week in Podcast The Newsletter: Good Tape is now accepting editorial and art pitches for their next issue, The Celebrity Issue, set to be published this fall. Writers will receive $.50/word on the theme of celebrity and fame in podcasting. More information can be found here.

🚶🏽Join Allan McLeod as he moseys through the streets, trails, parks, and public spaces that shape our cities in the podcast Walkin’ About. From tranquil nature hikes and cemetery strolls, to urban exploration and bar crawls, come along with Allan and his funny, famous, and friendly guests as they find their way on foot. Let's get our walk on! 

🎙️A Little Bit de Todo is a podcast about a little bit of everything, for curious minds of all ages. Every weekday, host Cristina tells you about something Latino/Latine related, but in a bite-sized episode. Topics involve things like, what are we really celebrating on Cinco de Mayo? Where did Lucha Libre come from? Who invented color? Listen on your way to school drop-off/pick-up, during your work break, during a short dog walk, or wherever!

🏦Unleash your business potential with Cadence Bank’s acclaimed podcast, In Good Companies. Listen to expert advice for entrepreneurs, executives, and mid-sized businesses, hosted by Patrick Pacheco. Navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship with discussions on growth strategies, data security, crisis management, and company culture in under 30 minutes per episode.

Podcast news from Podnews

Spotlight

Trap Street podcast cover art

An unemployed gamer has received a mysterious email with two attachments. The first is an image of a woman with red hair and green eyes. The second is an old map of a town called Ocean Bay. What this young man does next will determine the fate of the entire human race.

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