Introducing the August 2024 issue of Worlds of Possibility

The August 2024 issue of Worlds of Possibility has gone out to paid subscribers, who can get their copy here: https://www.juliarios.com/the-august-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-august-2024-296183

This issue contains six stories, five poems, five original illustrations, and one interview with our featured poet. To the best of my knowledge, I do not use AI.

We are launching this issue at WorldCon in Glasgow, and to celebrate that, the featured poems by Beth Cato and the interview with her are available right away for everyone to read and listen to!

Table of Contents:

• Lady: a poem by Jean Goulbourne, 18 lines.
• Shooting Stars: a story by Rebecca Zahabi, 509 words. 
• Happiness Is ______________: a story by Rodrigo Culagovski, 900 words. With an illustration by Julia Kim.
• Junkyard Spaceship: a poem by Beth Cato, 12 lines.
• Perks of the Job: a story by Kimberly Ann Smiley, 125 words. With an illustration by Miyusa Ashibari.
• Three Conversations with Myself in an Arby’s at the Edge of the Solar System: a story by Craig Church, 2,000 words.
• Nova’s Epic Re-Entry Bucket List: a story by Y. M. Resnik, 3,120 words. With an illustration by Amad Razi. An alternate version of this illustration also serves as the cover art for this issue. 
• A Slice of Cake: a poem by Jonathan Chibuike Ukah, 22 lines. With an illustration by Miyusa Ashibara.
• Defiance by Cake: a poem by Beth Cato, 65 lines.
• This Goodly Frame, the Earth: a story by Cecilia Tan, 3,700 words.
• You Are a Monster: a poem by Beth Cato, 35 lines. With an illustration by Miyusa Ashibara.
• Interview with Featured Poet, Beth Cato, 3,800 words.

Before we get into this issue’s contents, a fundraiser update:

We continue to witness genocide in Palestine, and I am continuing to donate to individual GoFundMe pages of fundraisers to help. If you would like to join me, you can donate to: 

• Hani’s fundraiser for a Gaza soup kitchen. This is where my most recent donation went. People in Gaza need food, and it’s really hard to get. This fundraiser supports people on the ground who are actively helping. (https://gofund.me/9f157725)
• Ossama’s fundraiser to help bring his extended family to be with him in Canada. They’ve made progress, but definitely still need help to get people out and to settle those who’ve made it to Canada. (https://gofund.me/8d0daf9f)
• Nour’s fundraiser to evacuate her family to Germany. This family includes a baby who is less than a year old. Nour is now in Egypt and is getting close to her goal! (https://gofund.me/9b36e5f6)

If you would like to see a lot more resource links related to Palestine, I recommend checking out Laura Mandelberg’s essay from the December issue.

Our August issue looks up to the stars! We open with “Lady” by Jean Goulbourne, a perfect poem for those summer nights when you want to stay out until dawn, dreaming. Next, we have “Shooting Stars” by Rebecca Zahabi, a story about chasing your dreams, but literally aiming for the stars. 

“Happiness Is ______________” by Rodrigo Culagovski is the first illustrated piece in this issue, with a lovely image by Worlds of Possibility favorite, Julia Kim. This one’s not just about aiming for the stars, but going to them. It’s also our first of three pieces featuring cats in space.

Beth Cato is our featured poet for this issue, and she’s contributed three poems! The first is our second cat in space piece, “Junkyard Spaceship”. We follow that with our third cat in space in a short short (just over drabble length) story called “Perks of the Job” by Kimberly Ann Smiley. This one has an illustration by Miyusa Ashibara. 

We then move to another issue theme: food! Craig Church’s “Three Conversations with Myself in an Arby’s at the Edge of the Solar System” starts us off with with … well … an Arby’s fast food restaurant at the edge of the solar system. Next we keep the fast food, but return from the stars to Earth with “Nova’s Epic Re-Entry Bucket List” by Y. M. Resnik. This one has an original illustration by Amad Razi, an alternate version of which serves as the cover art for this issue. 

Leaving the stars behind for bit, but following the food theme, we have two different poems about cake. First, “A Slice of Cake” by Jonathan Chibuike Ukah with another Miyusa Ashibara illustration, and second “Defiance by Cake” by Beth Cato. 

We take one more trip to the stars with our last story, “This Goodly Frame, the Earth” by Cecilia Tan. This one also follows the food theme, but like Beth’s poem, is more about the homemade kind than the fast food kind. 

Next we have Beth Cato’s last poem for this issue, “You Are a Monster”. This one also has the last Miyusa Ashibara illustration. We follow that with an interview all about Beth’s creative process. This will be released on the OMG Julia podcast along with Beth reading her three poems shortly after the issue goes out, so you can listen to all of them as well as reading.

Individual content notes appear in the back of the ebook issue, and will also be listed at the top of an individual piece's web page.