Breaking the glass slipper

Women in Speculative Fiction

Women have been creating and starring in science fiction, fantasy, and horror since the genre began. We are here to celebrate the wonderful contribution of women to speculative fiction. We are an intersectional feminist podcast and embrace all voices.

Breaking the Glass Slipper won Best Audio in the 2019 British Fantasy Awards  and was nominated for a Hugo Award.

 

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About the podcast

Our episodes discuss trends and issues in speculative fiction across books, films, TV, and games, including interviews with industry experts.

Science fiction

Science and technology are the order of the day. Let’s explore the final frontier together.

Fantasy

The home of magic and dragons. The only limit is your imagination.

Horror

Be prepared for thrills and chills. This is no place for the faint hearted.

Epic episodes

Sometimes you will find us arguing amongst ourselves and for other episodes, we will bring on one or two special guests to throw the discussion open with diverse voices.

Who We are

The podcast was the brainchild of pop culture commentator Megan Leigh, who enlisted the help of fantasy author Lucy Hounsom and horror writer and romance editor Charlotte Bond to create the perfect podcasting dream team.

Charlotte Bond

Ghostwriter, author, commissioning editor and reviewer. In 2015, she became the commissioning editor for Gemstone Romance. She is also a reviewer on the Ginger Nuts of Horror website and a guest reviewer at Jane and Bex’s Book Blog. You can find her on her FaceBook page or follow her on Twitter @offred85.

Lucy Hounsom

Author of The Worldmaker Trilogy, the first book of which, Starborn, was shortlisted for the Gemmell Morningstar Award for best fantasy debut in 2016. She’s also a Waterstones bookseller and lives in Devon, UK with two cats and many dragons. You can follow her @silvanhistorian.

Megan Leigh

Writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her work has appeared on Pop Verse, SFWA, SFF World, Pornokitsch, and Writers’ Workshop. She reviews books for the British Fantasy Society. Follow her @m_leigh_g.

Latest Episodes

You can listen to Breaking the Glass Slipper on most platforms, for instance: Spotify, iTunesSoundcloudStitcherTuneIn, and via RSS Feed.

Obsessional love and vengeance with S.E. Porter

Love can last a lifetime, but revenge is forever... Love is a common driving force for novels, and it comes in many forms. It could be the pursuit of true love, or the quest to turn unrequited love into a passionate relationship. Often, it can be the loss of love that...

Ghosts have warm hands – with Katherine Arden

The title of this episode is taken from Will R. Bird's memoir of World War 1, a title which also inspired that of Katherine Arden's novel set amidst the horror of the Great War. When it comes to writing about war, past authors have glorified it with moments of pathos....

Beneath the skin of the earth – with Nicola Griffith

Welcome to our first episode of 2024. Yes, the title's a quote from our incredible guest. As a podcast dedicated primarily to speculative fiction, we rarely find ourselves taking a deep dive into history. But the growth in popularity of both myths and retellings is...

Othering and exoticism in fantasy with Eliza Chan

Modern fantasy owes much to J.R.R. Tolkien, including his problematic colonialist views and othering of cultures and races different from his medieval European-inspired setting. Many authors since then have used 'historical accuracy' as a defence against a lack of...

Community and isolation – with Jennifer Thorne

We love our folk horror. The genre has been growing in popularity these past years, and it’s not hard to see why. Writers take pastoral settings such as windswept hills or rugged sea coasts and imbue them with a sense of deep isolation. Throw in a community that seems...

Romancing the necromancer – with Alice James

Welcome to our Halloween episode! Romance has always been big business and these days there are plenty of subgenres. Despite its popularity, however, some snobbery still exists, often dismissing romance as "women's fiction." But if romance is really so terrible, why...

The dark half of the year – with Lili Hayward

It’s October, so we're officially allowed to talk about Christmas. Sure, we’ve got Halloween first, and that’s a celebration we should all be enthusiastic about, but take a look at what books are being pushed by bookstores, Amazon, and even supermarkets, and you’ll...

The power of language – with Jelena Dunato and Ioanna Papadopoulou

We often take for granted the role language plays in communicating our favourite stories. And here in the west, there exists an unspoken expectation to be able to consume those favourite stories in English. The necessity and importance of translation is a given....

“Something a little monstrous” – with Isabel Cañas 

We're honoured to have Isabel Cañas join us on the show as she talks us through not only her fabulous new novel, Vampires of El Norte, but also her experience of breaking into publishing as a Mexican-American writer and the pressure on marginalised creators to produce...

The poison salon – with Rose Biggin

In the preface to Les Fleurs du mal, Baudelaire indicated that boredom is the truest suffering, andthis idea later became central to the fin de siècle movement, an era of decadence in which artificemasqueraded as, or was even elevated to the status of, art. The...

Our blog

Is audio content not your bag? No worries! Every two weeks we interview some of your favourite authors, editors, and content creators on our blog!