Last Updated: 8 October 2025

Editors

• Kat Kourbeti (Senior Editor)
• Michael Ireland (Editor)

What We Want

Voice actors from a variety of demographics and backgrounds to do readings of stories and poems published by Strange Horizons.

You do not have to have a professional theatrical background, but you do need to be able to read well, making the stories and poems accessible and interesting to our listeners. You must also be able to send us a high quality recording of your reading, with little background noise.

Essential:

• Must enjoy speculative fiction (if you are not familiar with Strange Horizons, read some of our issues to get an idea of what we publish)
• Must have some experience of reading aloud or performing for an audience
• Quality setup (external USB or XLR mic, pop filter, sound dampening)
• Good communication skills

Desirable:

• Proficiency in non-English languages, or the capability to pronounce words and phrases from other languages (a pronunciation guide will be provided with each story)
• Basic audio editing skills (you’d only need to edit the content of your audio, ie. cutting out mistakes and re-takes into a cohesive whole) using whatever audio programme you choose (Audacity, Adobe Audition, etc)

What You Can Expect

• Join a roster of talented and diverse people from all over the world who love speculative fiction
• Good and clear communication about what we need from you and by when
• Robust guidelines on how to get the best recording and how to do a basic edit of your audio
• Grow your narration/voice-over skills
• Build your audio portfolio - ideal for people in (or looking to move into) voice acting, narration, or podcasting

How to Audition

To apply, fill out this form. We’ll need to assess a few factors, such as your audio setup, your reading and performance skills, and voice suitability. If you don't have a recent recording handy, be prepared to record a short audition clip of you reading a few paragraphs from your favourite Strange Horizons story.

What We Pay

Narrator roles are voluntary, as are all staff roles on the magazine.

What to Expect

You will receive an email confirming your application has been received. If you have not heard from us in eight weeks from the date of your submission, please contact us.

• If your application is successful, you'll go into our database of potential readers, and we'll contact you whenever we have opportunities that fit your skill set and availability.
• If the recording quality was inadequate, we'll let you know so you can try again when you have better tools.
• If we review your audio and find that your performance skills do not meet our requirements, we'll let you know that your application has been rejected and that you are welcome to apply again in the future.

Updating your Availability and Information

If you are part of our roster and would like to update your availability, contact information, pronouns, or anything else, please get in touch and we'll send you a personalised link through which you can update your info on our database.