Introducing the February 2024 Issue of Worlds of Possibility

The February 2024 issue of Worlds of Possibility has gone out to paid subscribers, who can get their copy here: https://www.juliarios.com/the-february-2024-issue-of-worlds-of-possibility/.

If you would like to buy an individual copy of this issue instead of subscribing, you can do that here: https://www.patreon.com/juliarios/shop/worlds-of-possibility-february-2024-122812

This issue contains five stories, two poems, two original illustrations, and one 100 word drabble. Wherever you see art that is not credited, it is because I personally did graphic design using stock art. To the best of my knowledge, I do not use AI.

Table of contents:

• "In Winter, A Wedding" (poem) by Sara Norja with an illustration by Eliseeva Elizaveta
• "Bone and Marrow, Root and Stem" (story) by A.Z. Louise
• "Do You LIKE Like Me?" (100 word drabble) by Marc A. Criley
• "Let the Mothman In" (story) by Rachael K. Jones
• "Firecrackers on 28 Mott Street" (story) by Angela Liu with an illustration by Roby Firmansyah
• "Wall of Keyholes" (poem) by Angela Liu
• "The Shape of Them" (story) by Y.M. Resnik
• "Delivered" (story) by Rem Wigmore

February 24th marks the 2nd anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine. At the time of my writing this note, war is still happening there. We are also still witnessing the devastation in Palestine. Worlds of Possibility exists to promote hope, so I have dedicated the cover of this issue to calling for peace. Specifically, I designed it myself using stock art, and I used money I might have spent on original art for it to make donations to Doctors Without Borders and World Central Kitchen, two organizations currently actively helping people in Palestine, Ukraine, and beyond. Doctors Without Borders provides medical care, and World Central Kitchen provides meals. One of the things I particularly love about World Central Kitchen is that they take care to provide culturally appropriate food, using methods and recipes that each location is familiar with so that the recipients can have something that is both comforting and nourishing. If you are feeling upset about the state of the world and have some extra cash to spare, you could do worse than to donate to either of these organizations.

I’ve also donated recently to two different GoFundMe pages for families who are trying to leave Palestine. This process is long, difficult, and expensive, and neither family has met their goal as yet. If you would like to help people directly rather than through an organization like the ones above, you can donate to Hanan Abu Basheer’s fundraiser to help her family evacuate after her grandparents’ home and uncle’s pharmacy were destroyed, or to Ossama Zaqqout’s fundraiser to help bring his extended family to be with him in Canada.

February and March have a lot of things going on, and this issue’s poetry and fiction and original artwork cover themes of winter and spring (the seasons currently happening where I live), romantic love, and lunar new year.

We start with feathers… by following birds through the snow in Sara Norja’s wondrous and mythic story poem, “In Winter, a Wedding” — This one has an original illustration by Eliseeva Elizaveta, a Ukrainian artist who you may remember as the illustrator of Tehnuka’s “Elephant Doctor” in 2022. We follow this by moving from one enchantment to another, and from one season to another as well with “Bone and Marrow, Root and Stem” by A.Z. Louise. This is the longest story in this issue at nearly 4,000 words, and it’s the second issue in a row where we’ve had a fairy type person presenting as Black (the previous issue had “A Refugee from Fairyland” by Keyan Bowes). This is a coincidence and wasn’t planned, but it makes me happy. “In Winter, a Wedding” and “Bone and Marrow, Root and Stem” both also celebrate romantic love.

Next we keep with the romantic love theme, but shift genres from Fantasy to sci-fi with Marc A. Criley’s “Do You LIKE Like Me?” and horror (but cozy, comforting horror!) with “Let the Mothman In” by Rachael K. Jones.

We’re entering the year of the dragon this month, and to celebrate we have two pieces by Chinese-American author, Angela Liu. “Firecrackers on 28 Mott Street” is a story set during the new year, and it also features an original illustration by Robby Firmansyah. The second is a poem called “A Wall of Keyholes” which is bittersweet and helps us transition back to our romance theme for the last two pieces in this issue.

Finally, we have two short pieces that explore how romance and religion can intersect. “The Shape of Them” by Y.M. Resnik gives us a queer Jewish seamstress who makes magic clothes and has a crush on a non-binary client. This one is utterly delightful, but I won’t say anything more about why because it will be more fun if you discover it on your own. And “Delivered” by Rem Wigmore is our last piece, a flash about a human and an angel. I thought it would be nice to end as we began: with feathers. After all, as Emily Dickinson said, “Hope is the thing with feathers…”