Introducing the December 2024 Issue of Worlds of Possibility

The December 2024 issue of Worlds of Possibility has gone out to paid subscribers, who can get their copy here: https://www.juliarios.com/the-december-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-december-2024-843379.

This issue contains five stories (one of which is a drabble), four poems, and one original illustration. 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. Below you will find the table of contents and the Note From the Editor for this issue.

Table of Contents:

• Journey of a Dandelion Seedling: a poem by E. S. Hovgaard, 109 lines. This poem inspired the cover for this issue, which I designed using stock art.
• Ivy and Eucalyptus: a story by E. M. Linden, 2,300 words.
• Binary / Bloom: a poem by Margaret E. Winikates, 10 lines.
• Cycle of Life: a poem by Manny Cartagena, 12 lines.
• Fairy, Robin, Sunflower: a story by Avra Margariti, 850 words.
• Hearts and Flowers: a story by Marisca Pichette, 1,750 words.
• I Choose: a poem by Hope Joseph, 17 lines.
• Answering the Call: a story by Julie Brydon, 100 words.
• So You Want to Run a Temporal Coffee Shop: a story by R. P. Sand, 4,200 words.

We continue to witness genocide in Palestine, and I am continuing to donate to humanitarian relief efforts. If you would like to join me, Hani’s Hot Meals 4 Gaza is a grassroots effort to provide school for kids and meals and water for people of all ages in Gaza. The soup kitchen currently has four locations and provides meals to people in hospitals as well as to starving families. 

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 2023 issue.

Closer to my own area of the world, Western North Carolina is still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the flash flooding that happened in autumn. BeLoved Asheville continues to work with local communities to rebuild and resupply hard hit areas, and I invite you to join me in sending donations their way, too.

December is the end of the calendar year for me, and it’s a time when I often look back at the year just passed and ahead to what changes the next year will bring. It’s a time of ending and beginning, clearing old growth and preparing to welcome new. Perhaps that is why I felt like this issue needed a heavy plant focus. The cover, which I designed using stock art, is inspired by E. S. Hovgaard’s poem, “Journey of a Dandelion Seedling”. This poem is a delight to look at on the page, and also to read, and it is a reminder that we must often try many things, and undergo many different experiences before we settle in to embrace one particular way of being. 

Worlds of Possibility started for me as a project to bring more joy and comfort and happiness into my reading. It’s worked wonderfully, and I have loved sharing it with the rest of the world. Now, however, I think I am ready for a change. The wind’s restless stirring is preparing to send my own dandelion seedling off in a new direction. 

I will be wrapping up the magazine with the June 2025 issue.

My original intent with this project wasn’t to make a magazine at all, but I have so much experience in magazine editing that I sort of accidentally fell into it! In August of 2022, I released the first digital magazine issue, and I have done bi-monthly issues of Worlds of Possibility since then. It’s been lovely, and by wrapping it up with the June 2025 issue, we’ll have three full years of it. 

There will be one more open reading period for the magazine in the beginning of 2025, and there will also be a second volume of the anthology. I’m not sure exactly where I will go from here, but I do plan to leave the door open for future Worlds of Possibility projects. This phase is ending, but there may well be future anthologies or other projects. 

But let us get back to this particular issue, shall we? 

From dandelion seedlings, we move to other seeds with E. M. Linden’s touching story of life at the end of the world, “Ivy and Eucalyptus”.  From there, we move to a pair of compact flower poems with “Binary / Bloom” by Margaret E. Winikates and “Cycle of Life” by Manny Cartagena.

Next, two stories of love and flowers. Lovers live in cozy harmony despite the trials of a capitalistic world in Avra Margariti’s “Fairy, Robin, Sunflower”. This story has our original illustration for the issue by Italian artist, Graziella Miligi. And the themes of love manifesting as taking care and making space for others continue in Marisca Pichette’s “Hearts and Flowers”.

Our tour through the gardens of this issue ends here, but we have three more non-flower themed pieces to savor. Hope Joseph gives us a steadfast choice to embrace wonder with his poem, “I Choose”. In “Answering the Call” Julie Brydon gives us a reminder that sometimes we can get too caught up in our sense of obligation to loved ones and forget that love is at the core of those relationships. And finally, to end this issue, we have a lovely instruction manual from R. P. Sand with “So You Want to Run a Temporal Coffee Shop”. 

There are content notes at the end of the 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. 

All Best,
Julia Rios