The Coode Street Podcast

In this episode, Jonathan and Gary have a long overdue extended discussion with the wonderful Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher), whose excellent horror novel A House With Good Bones appeared in late March, and whose thoroughly original imagining of the Sleeping Beauty story Thornhedge , is forthcoming in August. We also touch upon some of her best-known works like Nettle and Bone and  A Wizard’s G...

Returning after a brief hiatus, Coode Street welcomes the wonderful multiple award-winning Sarah Pinsker , whose new collection Lost Places has just been published by Small Beer Press , and includes the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning “Where Oaken Hearts do Gather.” We touch upon her career as both story writer and novelist, the relationship of her music performances to her fiction, the bala...

This week, Jonathan and Gary talk with Kelly Link, whose new collection White Cat, Black Dog is already showing up on bestseller lists. It's her first themed collection, with each of the seven stories linked to a particular fairy tale. We also touch upon several writers whose work has been important to Kelly, including Joanna Russ, Peter Straub, M.R, James, Fritz Leiber, Nicola Griffith, and Shirl...

It’s awards season again (or maybe still), so Jonathan and Gary take a moment to remind everyone of the deadlines for nominating candidates for Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, and Nebula Awards, and to discuss briefly a proposal to add a one-time category of “Best Fantasy Novel” to the Hugos at the 2024 Glasgow Worldcon. They also chat a bit about the Best Related Work Hugo, and whether or not certain...

This week Jonathan and Gary are joined by World Fantasy and Newbery Award winner Kelly Barnhill, whose When Women Were Dragons was one of last year’s outstanding fantasy novels. We talk about her just-published The Crane Husband , which powerfully combines aspects of the classic fairy tale, science fiction, horror, and coming-of-age tale. We touch upon mixing genres, writing while raising a family...

We are always casting around for inspiration. After getting ChatGPT to provide a new introduction for the podcast, Gary and Jonathan kick off a discussion about the health of the short fiction field, the scope and variety of short story collections due to be published in 2023, and share some (okay, many) thoughts on the history of short fiction collections in the science fiction field.   As always...

This week, in our more-or-less annual discussion of the Locus Recommended Reading List , we are delighted to be joined by Locus Editor-in-Chief Liza Groen Trombi. We talk about the purpose of the list, how it has changed over the years, how books or stories get on the list, and a few thorny questions about how to decide whether a novel is SF or fantasy if it contains substantial elements of both....

It's not been that long since they last discussed it, but this week Jonathan and Gary return to the question of space opera, new space opera, and what contemporary SF authors might make of the concept. Is space opera the core narrative of SF, as Jonathan suggests, or only one of them? What are its essential characteristics? Has the greater diversity of SF over the last decade changed its basic for...

To kick off 2023, Jonathan and Gary share their lists of the books that they’re looking forward to reading in 2023. They mention a lot of forthcoming titles, ranging books from old masters like Peter S. Beagle, Howard Waldrop, Joanna Russ, Gene Wolfe, and Connie Willis to newer writers like Samit Basu, Vajra Chandrasekera, Alix E. Harrow, Emily Tesh, and Premee Mohamed, as well as essential collec...

There's Christmas and then there's Krampus. Here at Coode Street, there's nothing quite like a little bit more, and as a very special holiday bonus Gary sat down with the wonderful M. Rickert to talk about what she'd been reading, what she'd recommend, and her fabulous Krampus tale, Lucky Girl , one of our favourites and perfect for a cold, winter's night. As always, our thanks to Mary and hope yo...

And that's a wrap. Time to hang up the headphones and take a short break. The Coode Street Podcast is going on hiatus for the remainder of 2022 and will return early in 2023. Just before the Gershwin Room closes for the holidays, though, Gary and Jonathan take a moment to chat about the Advent Calendar, the year just gone, and more. Doing something like the podcast is a joy and a privilege, so Gar...

And so we come to the final episode of the 2022 Coode Street Advent Calendar. Gary sits down to chat with a dear friend of the podcast, Elizabeth Hand , about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, her holiday recommendations, her own classic Christmas story, " Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol ", and her fabulous new novel Hokolua Road . We'd like to thank Liz for making the time to chat wi...

Way back in March 2020 we sat down with N.K. Jemisin to talk about her then-new fantasy novel, The City We Became . It was great. Then we had a whole pandemic, so we thought we'd check in to see how things are going. The holidays are literally upon us and Jonathan and Nora chat about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, and the sequel to that 2020 novel, The World We Make . As always, ou...

We spoke with Tochi Onyebuchi back in 2020 as part of " Ten Minutes with... ", when his award-winning novella Riot Baby was still new in the world. Since then Tochi's been busy but has still managed to deliver another incredible novel, this time Goliath . Today Jonathan and Tochi discuss what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, his holiday reads, and what he's been working on. As always, our t...

Although Nghi Vo published her first short story all the way back in 2007, it's only been in the last five years that she's really grabbed everyone's attention, first with the 'Singing Hills' cycle of novellas, then with her stunning debut novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful . This year she has two books among the year's very best: 'Singing Hills' novella Into the Riverlands and her fabulous sopho...

There are friends of the Podcast, and then there's family. We've been talking to the great and glorious John Clute -- writer, critic, encyclopedist, and more -- since 2010. Whether it's been about events at the SF Encyclopedia , happenings in SF, or some other thing, he has always been warm, witty, and wise. Today Gary called John in Camden to talk about what he's been reading and what he'd recomm...

Depending on where you are in the world the weather is either turning chilly or it's becoming warm and sunny, but either way, it's not long till the end of our Advent Calendar. Today Gary talks to Naseem Jamnia about what they've been reading, what they'd recommend, and their exciting new novella, The Bruising of Qilwa . As always we'd like to thank Naseem for making the time to talk to us and hop...

John Kessel has long been a favourite of the podcast. We spoke to him in July about his major new retrospective short story collection,  The Best Short Fiction of John Kessel , so it's no real surprise that he's part of our Advent Calendar.   Today Gary had the pleasure of calling John and chatting about what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, and what he's been working on. As always, we than...

With a week left to go in the Advent Calendar, Jonathan sits down with Neon Yang to discuss what they've been reading, what they've read that they'd recommend, their holiday recommendations, and their exciting debut novel, space opera The Genesis of Misery ! As always, our thanks to Neon, and we hope you enjoy the episode!

The Coode Street Advent Calendar rolls on through December and today Gary sits down with Shirley Jackson and Locus Award nominee Richard Butner to discuss what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, his holiday reads, and his wonderful new collection, The Adventurists . As always, our thanks to Richard for making time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

We're halfway through December and more than halfway through our Advent Calendar. Today Gary sits down with one of the most interesting and diversely creative writers working in science fiction today, Lavie Tidhar , about his new novels Neom and Maror , his many other projects, as well as what he's been reading lately and would recommend. As always, our thanks to Lavie for making the time to talk...

Aurora award winner Sarah Tolmie chats with Gary about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, her holiday recommendations, and her fabulous new novella All the Horses of Iceland (Tordotcom), which was one of our favourite books of the year. As always, we'd like to thank Sarah for making the time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the episode.

As we move closer and closer to the end of the Advent Calendar, Jonathan sits down with good friend of the podcast Christopher Rowe  to discuss what he's been reading, what he'd recommend, his holiday reads, and what he's been working on, including his wonderful new novella These Prisoning Hills , which came out earlier this year. As always, our thanks to Christopher for making time to talk to us,...

And for the sixteenth day of the Advent Calendar, something a little special. Today Jonathan talks to the delightful C.S.E Cooney about what she's been reading, what she'd recommend, her holiday recommendations, and her absolutely wonderful new novel Saint Death's Daughter and collection Dark Breakers . As always, our thanks to Clare for making the time to talk to us, and we hope you enjoy the epi...

The Advent Calendar rolls on  as we move through the holidays towards year's end. Today Jonathan calls up good friend of the podcast and all-round wonderful person Alix E. Harrow to talk about what she's been reading (lots!), what she'd recommend (also lots!), if she has any favourite holiday reads (yes!), and what she had out this year (the hopefully not-the-last-but-almost-certainly-the-last ins...