I’m so surprised that more of my writer friends don’t listen to fiction podcasts.  Most of them are free—free!—and a great way to enjoy novels and short stories.  You can subscribe to all the podcasts mentioned here via iTunes (also free!); all you have to do is download the program and start searching for podcasts in the iTunes store.  After you subscribe, new issues of the podcasts you’ve chosen will automatically download to your iTunes account as they come in.

But you don’t have to subscribe to listen to the stories I’ve listed here; Just click on the story title and you’ll be taken to a link where you can listen online.

Two Favs from The New Yorker Fiction Podcast

Each month The New Yorker asks a writer to choose a short story from their archives to read and talk about.  The discussion, led by the New Yorker’s soft-spoken fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, is often one of the best things about podcast.  I highly recommend it.  And by the way, if you live in Toronto, Deborah Treisman is going to be in town for Luminato.  I’ll be there!

Mary Gaitskill reads Vladimir Nabokov’s “Symbols and Signs”

In the discussion, Mary Gaitskill calls this one of the best stories she’s ever read and adds that there is “something enormous bleeding through the very small conduit of the plot.” As for me, it’s one of the stories I come back to again and again.

T. Coraghessan Boyle reads Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain”

My grandmother got The New Yorker so throughout my childhood it was always lying around the house.  At first I only read the cartoons, but I eventually graduated to reading the fiction.  I remember reading this story when it first came out and being thrilled by the way it lured you in with humor, then changed to something very strange and poignant.  If you’re a writer, it’s a great one to study for pacing and point of view.

An All-Time Fav from The Drabblecast

Drabblecast won the 2010 Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction or Audio Magazine.  In the words of host Norm Sherman’s weekly intro, it “brings strange stories by strange authors to strange listeners…like yourself.”  Sherman usually narrates the stories himself in a louche, whiskey-soaked voice.  Each episode begins with a very short “drabble,” a short-story of exactly 100 words, then goes on to the main event: a science fiction, horror or fantasy short story.

Norm Sherman reads “Mongoose” (Part One and Part Two) by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

I enjoy both these authors separately, but something Monette and Bear writing together makes for thrilling world building.  This story, with top-notch production by the Drabblecast folks, is a strange meeting of Lovecraft and Lewis Carroll.  I’ve never fallen in love with a character with tentacles before!

Two Favs from Escape Pod

Escape Pod is one of the best-known science fiction podcasts.  Since taking the reins as editor last year, Mur Lafferty has brought a greater range to the stories, something I think the podcast needed: you really never know what you’ll get each week, but you know it’s going to be good.

Lawrence Santoro reads “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster

Freaky, creepy and lush, this story won the 2009 Nebula Award in the novelette category.  Lawrence Santoro’s narration makes it even more arresting.  I should warn you, though, it includes explicit sexual content.

Tim “ShoEboX” Crist reads “Eugene” by Jacob Sanger Weinstein

Okay, this one’s just a heck of a lot of fun.  If my other choices brought you down (What can I say?  I’m a little dark), this big-hearted character will bring you right back up again.

And that’s not all!  I’ll be doing a Part Two of this post in the next few weeks because there are many more wonderful stories and podcasts out there.  What are your favorites?