We are deeply honored to be considered for your nomination. 

Links to all of the stories included in our voter materials can also be found below; you can read and listen to the story directly from our website. All episodes include content warnings, which may contain spoilers.

Voter Selection Episodes

• Sometimes It Happens That Way by Jamie Lackey

  Narrated by J S Arquin
  Cast of Wonders 631 – 16 February 2025
  https://www.castofwonders.org/2025/02/cast-of-wonders-631-sometimes-it-happens-that-way/

  4339 words // 35m23s
  Original

  One of the older boys, Chair, was starting to tremble all the time and see things that weren’t there. He kept dropping his broom, then staring at his hands as if he was surprised his fingers still existed.

  But ma had written me a letter. Pa had been injured, but with the money I was sending back they were making do. I couldn’t quit.

  Window Boy by Thomas Ha

  Narrated by Rish Outfield
  Cast of Wonders 639 – 11 May 2025
  https://www.castofwonders.org/2025/05/cast-of-wonders-639-window-boy/
  4509 words // 34m21s
  Reprint: First published in Clarkesworld in August 2023

  Jakey didn’t know why he felt so cold. He wasn’t sure why the window boy asking him for this made him want to turn the window off and go to bed. But he did know that the way the boy was talking, and especially that last part, made him nauseous.

  “Just you.”

  “Yeah.”

  Chloe Chew and the Museum of Undead Art by Olivia B. Chan

  Narrated by S. Qiouyi Lu
  Cast of Wonders 645 – 18 July 2025
  https://www.castofwonders.org/2025/07/cast-of-wonders-645-chloe-chew-and-the-museum-of-undead-art/
  3546 words // 34m22s

  Young Author Original

  With the singular precision of a scalpel, Chloe closes her eyes and she wants. Necromancy is a delicate art—each swoop of her stomach, each tear, is calculated to the second. She clenches her jaw in time with death’s ancient rhythm. Her ears fill with the painting’s soft hum, and then she’s running through Asperthbell, forty years ago, and the pavement beneath her feet burns, and the air is clear enough to shatter, and she’s alive to feel it all.

  Your Hold is Ready by Laura Duerr

  Narrated by Dani Cutler
  Cast of Wonders 658 – 8 October 2025
  https://www.castofwonders.org/2025/10/cast-of-wonders-658-your-hold-is-ready/
  1492 words // 15m34s
  Flash Original

  It feels like the whole city is out partying. I haven’t seen crowds this big since the protests, but the energy couldn’t be more different. The skies are clear of drones and the cameras installed on street corners are blinded by pink spraypaint. No one’s whispering out here: they’re singing, shouting, cheering, cries of “he’s gone” bubbling out of throats already hoarse from celebration.

  It Grows Back by Grant Collier

  Narrated by Wilson Fowlie
  Cast of Wonders 662 – 31 October 2025
  https://www.castofwonders.org/2025/10/cast-of-wonders-662-it-grows-back/
  4078 words // 29m07s
  Original

  After a while, Bryson spoke up. “You saw it too.”

  “I don’t know,” said Simon. “Yes.”

  “Saw what?” asked Clay.

  “There’s something in Billy’s hall.”

  No one spoke after that. Everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to speak: maybe Billy, but he was not going to talk about it. He didn’t even want to think about it: it shivered him, like a breath on the back of his neck. Like a breath.