Guest editor Julia Rios has published a blog post walking us through her editing process, including narrator selections. We were so excited Julia agreed to the project, and couldn’t be happier with the showcase of stories.
Visit our Banned Books Week page to find all of Julia’s selections, along with previous year’s episodes.
Genres: Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, Surreal Fantasy
Mama’s fingernails are mesmerizing. They’re black and shiny as volcanic glass but not polished. Her skin is a deeper shade than North Carolina red clay, and her hair is pulled up high in two top knots. Long dreadlocks cascade down over both her ears. If she’s older than thirty no one can tell. Right now, I’m giving her serious side eye. She won’t stop blabbering and babbling and telling her grifter tales.
“I told that man, you cannot sell me this bucket on wheels. It’s beneath me,” she says in an accent as brown as her skin. “He didn’t like that. Now, rather than me convincing him, he’s convincing me to lower the price. ‘Til I have mercy, I take this car from him for $45 and I let him buy the beers.”
I huff and turn away from her. “Can you stop now?” I mumble.
“I could,” Mama says, like she’s sharing secrets, “but I could also be swallowed and spit back out as something flavorless.” (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy, Modern Fantasy
In the darkness of her bedroom, after her mother has gone to bed and she’s supposed to have done the same, she tells stories to the ghosts. She would do more for them but they never ask for anything else and she doesn’t know what more to do. They listen, gentle whispers all around her, urging her to continue, begging her for a few more words, just a little more of her time. They crave the stories she has to offer them and even when she is young, she feels the pull of narrative against her bones.
The ghosts are kind in their need, not pushing or screaming but quietly pleading, and she was not raised to deny anyone. She is the quiet kid, the good girl, the sweetheart. She knows her role, and it doesn’t matter what she wants because everyone already knows who she is before she ever gets the chance to show them.
People look at her, see the way she moves, the white cane in her hand, the way she holds books so close to her face. They all think they know her story, even before she says a word. (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Solitreo
“If it were not for Thee, what would become of me?”
She’s not speaking to me when she says this. Her poetry nests behind a prison’s walls. I am an unknown noise on the other side of her door—the only spot where sound enters or exits her world—a sweep of bristle against wood, some transitory trace of life that has nothing to do with her.
She and her people are in cells lined along a corridor in the deepest reaches of the convent. On occasion the mentally disturbed have been kept here, tended to and made safe by walls so thick they are more than an arm’s length. These people, however, are all one family: a mother; an adult son; four older daughters; and this one, who has spent nearly half her life in here.
That was all the information the Dominican Brothers shared with me the day I started. Except that I must not attempt to speak to the girl or her family through their doors. The Brothers made me swear this before I swept even one stone.
In the language I share with jailer and jailed, my name is Bienvenida, though my Nahuatl name is different. By the Brothers’ reckoning, it has been 1,562 years since the death of God. (Continue Reading…)
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
“Nduka, you better hurry or you’ll be late for school! Your breakfast is getting cold and you know you don’t like when curds form in your pap!” Aniele calls from the kitchen.
“Yes Mama,” Nduka answers from his bedroom.
The boy tiptoes to the door and gently bolts it before unbuttoning his school shirt. He stands in front of the mirror and looks at the string of words that snails along his belly. (Continue Reading…)
Cast of Wonders is thrilled to welcome Julia Rios as this year’s Banned Books Week guest editor! Julia is a multiple-Hugo award winning editor, writer, podcaster and narrator. She co-edited one of our favorite anthologies, the excellent Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, and we are thrilled to welcome her to our stage!
Hello all, Marguerite here.
We’re still reading our way through the offerings of another record-breaking submission period. To give our amazing slush readers a chance to catch up, there will be a short delay to the Banned Books Week submission window. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed and submission schedule for updates.
Thanks!