After a slightly longer than usual interval (sorry about that) Words with Jam is delighted to bring you Roland Denning's dystopic tale, Connected.

When CCTV and Reality Television merge together and multiple-choice has replaced freedom, how do we hang onto the last shards of ourselves?

Not just a reading of short story, but a fully voiced audio-play, written and performed by Roland Denning. Other members of the cast:

Anita: Lesley Davis
Frank: Howard Lee
Report Reader: Murray Anderson-Wallace

Welcome to our podcast in support of the BBC's World Book Night, on 5th March 2011. Travel from war torn Nigeria to a dark night by Checkpoint Charlie, from the ice world of the armoured bears to a world ruled by prime numbers - as a selection of our readers and contributors champion their choice of books from the World Book Night list.

To learn more about World Book Night, go to http://www.worldbooknight.org/.

We hope you will enjoy this chilling little tale by JW Hicks, read by the author.

The human obsession with health fads is even getting to the vampires...

A short story by Jo Reed, read by Jill Marsh

When Alele's father decides to marry her off to Mr. Muyila in exchange for a bull, her mother has other ideas...

This story was first published in Mslexia in Spring 2009.

We are very pleased to announce that, along with the February edition of Words with Jam, we are bringing you our very first podcast: Catriona Troth reading from her article, ‘In Praise of Virtual Friends’.

"I have grown increasingly tired, over the past few years, of the periodic flare up – as predictable as flu – of pundits falling over each other to tell us how Facebook has devalued the entire notion of friendship. Like Harry meeting Sally, these pundits insist: there can be no real friendship in cyberspace.

Well, I think they are wrong, and here's why."