Posts Tagged ‘Banned Books Week 2025’

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Cast of Wonders 677: Your Hold is Ready (Staff Picks 2025)

First published as Cast of Wonders 658, October 2025

homophobia, censorship, fascist dystopia

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Your Hold Is Ready

by Laura Duerr

The news is spreading. We try to keep working through our English tests, but it’s becoming impossible to focus. Laughter and drumming call us to join the crowds on the streets, as irresistible as Odysseus’ sirens. I imagine myself tied to my desk chair, ears plugged up with wax instead of noise-canceling headphones, and chuckle to myself.

Mr. Lanigan leans around his monitor. “Molly, did you just giggle?”

“Possibly?”

Two storeys down, the crowd erupts with cheering. The students nearest the windows peer out wistfully. So does Mr. Lanigan. He ought to be retired by now, but he’s still here, and we’re glad. He’s kept a lot of our secrets and we’ve kept his. At first it was weird to watch out for someone so much older than us, but he stood up for us every chance he got, and somehow, together, our ordinary classroom discussions became outlets for us to be ourselves: to give voice to the dreams and hopes that had miraculously survived not just high school, but high school under all this.

(Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 659: The Archive of Unnamed Joy

After editorial review, I have decided to pull the story “The Archive of Unnamed Joy” by Bella Chacha (aka Charity Ogechi, Irene W Collins, Ferdinand Ugochukwu, Victory Fortune etc.) from publication at Cast of Wonders.  In my judgement it does not meet the requirements for publication at Cast of Wonders.  We greatly regret that this was not identified and resolved at an earlier point in the publication process.

Katherine Inskip, Editor

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Cast of Wonders 658: Your Hold is Ready

Cast of Wonders 658: Your Hold is Ready is a Cast of Wonders original.

homophobia, censorship, fascist dystopia

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:02 — 20.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | RSS

Your Hold Is Ready

by Laura Duerr

The news is spreading. We try to keep working through our English tests, but it’s becoming impossible to focus. Laughter and drumming call us to join the crowds on the streets, as irresistible as Odysseus’ sirens. I imagine myself tied to my desk chair, ears plugged up with wax instead of noise-canceling headphones, and chuckle to myself.

Mr. Lanigan leans around his monitor. “Molly, did you just giggle?”

“Possibly?”

Two storeys down, the crowd erupts with cheering. The students nearest the windows peer out wistfully. So does Mr. Lanigan. He ought to be retired by now, but he’s still here, and we’re glad. He’s kept a lot of our secrets and we’ve kept his. At first it was weird to watch out for someone so much older than us, but he stood up for us every chance he got, and somehow, together, our ordinary classroom discussions became outlets for us to be ourselves: to give voice to the dreams and hopes that had miraculously survived not just high school, but high school under all this.

(Continue Reading…)

Genres:

Cast of Wonders 657: Plutopalooza

First published in Nature Futures, 13 March 2024

End of the world

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:11 — 18.1MB)

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Plutopalooza

by Gretchen Tessmer

Tess and Gemma have been camped out on their tartan picnic blanket for days already and they plan on staying until the very end…of the concert or the world, whichever happens first. Smart money is on the latter. The way those lads are going at their bass lines and anthems up on stage, they’re in this until the lights go out for good. (Continue Reading…)

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Cast of Wonders 656: Unconventionally Bound

Cast of Wonders 656: Unconventionally Bound is a Cast of Wonders original.

Aftermath of a fire

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:08 — 19.4MB)

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Unconventionally Bound

by Açai Sparrow

With ash-stained gloves, I ease another book free of the charred shelf. Deckle sneezes at the burnt leather, but she guided me to this one for a reason. Despite the sorry state of the cover, the pages look to be mostly intact.

The next book is much worse off, and I can barely identify it. Still, I can feel Deckle’s certainty through our bond. One of next year’s students will need it.

I nearly trip over the book after that; it must have fallen at some point. It takes a bit of doing to retrieve it, Deckle tucking herself under my arm as I lower myself to the floor. The edges of her scales leave raised red lines on my skin. They’ve been getting sharper; I should probably get around to getting a reinforced sleeve soon. The book’s cover crumbles a little when I pick it up, and I get the feeling some of the pages are damaged, but none fall out, so it can probably be repaired. As inappropriate as it may be, I’m excited by the task ahead. It will be refreshing, compared to assembling new covers or making whole replacement copies. (Continue Reading…)