Introducing the June 2025 Issue of Worlds of Possibility

The June 2025 issue of Worlds of Possibility has gone out to paid subscribers, who can get their copy here: https://www.juliarios.com/the-june-2025-issue-of-worlds-of-possibility/.

If you would like to buy an individual copy of this issue instead of subscribing, you can do that by purchasing access to my Patreon post, which is available for individual purchase here https://www.patreon.com/posts/june-2025-issue-131781049.

This issue contains fourteen stories, five poems, and three original illustrations. Uncredited art is designed/curated by me using stock art. I do try to ensure I am using stock created by humans. To the best of my knowledge, I do not use AI.

Table of Contents

• Fairy Charm: a story by Rita Briar, 72 words.
• Neither Kith Nor Kindergarten: a Story by H.E. Bergeron, 1,540 words.
• Feathers: a story by P.A. Cornell, 760 words.
• If Solar Sails Carried Creature Comforts: a poem by Angela Acosta, 20 lines.
• High School Graduation, June 2099: a poem by Angela Liu, 26 lines.
• An Unexpected Wombat: a story by Nico Martinez Nocito, 540 words. This story features an illustration by Gonzalo Alvarez.
• Mazal Tov, Mazal Tov: a story by Y.M. Resnik, 3,450 words.
• Warning: Cats Eyes Removed: a story by Die Booth, 1,082 words.
• Interview with Die Booth, including pictures of his cats eye travel talismans.
• Stories Never Die But Live Forever On the Winds: a story by Jo Miles, 1,325 words.
• A Sunday at the Park: a story by Lena Ng, 766 words. This story features an illustration by Julia Kim.
• Story Sits in Places: a poem by Marie Brennan, 7 lines.
• The Giant's Unquiet Bones: a story by Kate Ravenna, 957 words.
• In Her Tower of Scales: a story by Marisca Pichette, 1,180 words. This story features an illustration by Ana Niki, which also serves as the cover art for this issue.
• Princess and Crows: a poem by Mari Ness: 26 lines.
• Princess Reimagined: a story by Beth Goder, 100 words.
• The Flightless Finch: a story by Megan Baffoe, 1,675 words.
• Reliable Girls: a poem by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, 23 lines.
• Five Reasons Why I Am Absolutely Not in Love with My Nemesis: A Magically Sealed Journal Entry: a story by Stephanie Burgis, 1,000 words.
• The Clearing Where it Began: a story by Sarah Grace Tuttle, 250 words.

It’s June, and where I live that means summer solstice, Pride Month, and, unfortunately, a continued awareness of injustice in the world. 

We continue to see Russia’s war on Ukraine and Israel attacking Palestine and starving the people of Gaza. I’ve once again chosen to donate to World Central Kitchen recently. They’re still providing meals in Ukraine, but they have said that they’ve run out of food in Gaza and are unable to get more supplies. They are currently using their resources in Gaza to give people clean drinking water since they have not been able to bring food in. I’ve also once again donated to Hani’s Hot Meals for Gaza fund. They are still feeding people as well as coordinating medical care and school for children, and providing water. 

At home in the US, the people are protesting loudly as ICE raids and police violence disrupt communities all over the country. I find hope in seeing so many friends and acquaintances from all walks of life speaking out against this, and speaking up for immigrants and for LGBTQ+ rights. In Boston on June 14th, the Pride march ended up combining with the No Kings protest and became a giant joyful protest. We’re angry and sad, but we’re also finding community and supporting each other. I love the fierceness of people who can find hope and joy in troubling times, and that’s what I wanted to bring to this last magazine issue of Worlds of Possibility. 

So get ready, because there’s a lot of hope coming!

We begin with “Fairy Charm” by Rita Briar, a microfiction that sets the tone for this issue by reminding us all to pay attention to our own power, to accept ourselves and act with confidence. Sometimes that means embracing the earthly and mundane rather than the ostentatiously magical, as in “Neither Kith Nor Kindergarten” by H.E. Bergeron, but I’ll let you discover more about what I mean by then when you read it. 

“Feathers” by P.A. Cornell follows. This is a painful but also sweet story about how important it is for parents to encourage and accept their children. 

We’ve got a pair of poems next with “If Solar Sails Carried Creature Comforts” by Angela Acosta and “High School Graduation, June 2o99” by Angela Liu. Both of these lean into queer solarpunk futures and the bittersweetness of coming of age, while our next story, “An Unexpected Wombat” by Nico Martinez Nocito, shows us another kind of coming of age vision as a trans person finds hope and comfort amidst inner chaos. This one is accompanied by the first of our three original illustrations for this issue, “Trans Pride Wombat” by Gonzalo Alvarez. 

“Mazal Tov, Mazal Tov” by Y. M. Resnik shows us a queer person who’s a little bit older, but still follows that theme of finding hope in self-acceptance, in this case, involving the push and pull of self identity vs. religious identity and family expectations.

Coming back to that solarpunk vibe, we have “Warning: Cats Eyes Removed” by Die Booth. Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with animal cruelty or cats! This story shows us  two queer friends who are middle aged, which I love because queerness and community and acceptance are for everyone at every age, and not just the young. We follow that with an interview where you can learn all about Die Booth’s story inspiration and creative process. 

In “Stories Never Die But Live Forever On the Winds” by Jo Miles, conservative bigots try to burn books to keep their children from reading them, but the results are unexpected. Let all of us be like the winds in this story!

And, having spent some time in an upsetting world, we then come back to a world of whimsy that will be familiar to longtime readers of Worlds of Possibility. “A Sunday at the Park” by Lena Ng is the third installment of the adventures of Katie and Jessica, a married couple, and their chunky orange cat who likes to play video games and ride rocket bikes. We’ve seen them have bike races in the stars and play volleyball with an octopus at the beach. What could possibly happen at the park when Philip the cat skips a stone over the pond? This story is accompanied by our second original illustration, another delightful image of Philip the cat by Julia Kim. This story also acts as a sort of  midpoint, wrapping up the first half of the issue with its more contemporary or futuristic stories. 

Next, we’re off on a journey deep into the vast fairytale forest!

We begin by crossing the mountains, tall and wrinkled by layers of story. Our first pairing is “Story Sits in Places” by Marie Brennan and “The Giant’s Unquiet Bones” by Kate Ravenna. The first is a poem about mythic landscapes, and the second is a story about … well, mythic landscapes. When I read these in my submissions queue, I knew they had to go together. I gather this is Kate Ravenna’s first publication, so lucky us to be the first to read this lushness!

Once we descend from the mountains into the fairytale forest, we, of course, encounter a trio of towers. Our first is “In Her Tower of Scales” by Marisca Pichette, a story about Rapunzel, but not the story you’ve heard before. This one is accompanied by our third and final original illustration for this issue, a fairytale forest scene by Ana Niki, which also serves as the cover art. Our second is “Princess and Crows” by Mari Ness, a poem about another princess in a tower. And our third tower tale is about yet another princess in the drabble, “Princess Reimagined” by Beth Goder.

But of course not every dwelling in the fairytale forest is a tower. In “The Flightless Finch” by Megan Baffoe, cottages that walk on legs are the cozy homes of choice, and the next two pieces likely take place in non-ambulatory cottages. “Reliable Girls” by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman is a poem that gives us a glimpse into the lives of the sisters from Diamonds and Toads, while “Five Reasons Why I Am Absolutely Not in Love with My Nemesis: A Magically Sealed Journal Entry” by Stephanie Burgis shows us a glimpse of a queer fairy family from another classic story. 

Finally, we end in the best way I know how: with a beginning. “The Clearing Where It Began” by Sarah Grace Tuttle mirrors our first two pieces by reminding us to cultivate kindness and grow magic. I hope all of us will take this to heart. 

As always, there are content notes at the end of the ebook issue for anyone who is worried about what they may find in the stories. Although my goal for Worlds of Possibility is to publish works that soothe, inspire, and delight, I recognize that many subjects are difficult for different readers at different times, and I encourage you to make informed decisions about what you choose to read and when. 

Thank you for reading the last magazine issue of Worlds of Possibility! It has been an honor and a pleasure to bring you three years of hopeful, happy, and soothing science fiction and fantasy in magazine form!

What’s coming next? Sometime soon I will begin assembling the next volume of the book form of Worlds of Possibility. I’ll post all about that process as it happens. I’m also planning to get more of the earlier Worlds of Possibility pieces up for free online. One reason I am choosing to wrap up the magazine is to give me more time to do that. It’s something I have always intended to do, but which has been consistently the easiest thing to let slide as I chase other deadlines. If you are a subscriber and choose to continue subscribing, you’ll be supporting my efforts to get this work done, and to work on my own writing, but you won’t see more new magazine issues. If you choose to end your subscription, you can still keep up with my progress as a free subscriber to my website or patreon, and I welcome you to do that!

All Best,
Julia Rios