iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/08/2026

this is a really special day for manywor(l)ds - our third anniversary, and the release of our thirteenth issue! we built this issue with special care and intention to reflect our mission, aesthetic, and desires as a magazine, and are proud of how it turned out.

Issue 13

Abigail Cain
Plague of the Soil

Anna Nygren
Grl/s in Hospital

Cindy Phan
The Ghost Girl Never Waves Back

Joanne Merriam
put Canada in parentheses

Jamie Hawley
Lepidoptera

Greer
“In the Event of my Death,” or “Monday, January 1992.”

KB Brookins
Interview with Sara Youngblood Gregory

Blue Đào Nguyễn
marsroverlovesong.mp3

L. Acadia
through Narrow Gate with you

Jacob Nye
Commitment Survey 1

Nameless Cartographer
Moss-cloaked Effigies

Mileva Anastasiadou
The Wolf Who Wore a Cat’s Face

1168

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 08/08/2026

On the eve of our third anniversary issue (out in a week!) We're delighted & honored to announce our Best of the Net @bestofthenet.bsky.social nominations for 2027.

Poetry
Emma Johnson-Rivard, There’s a Dinosaur in the Library
EK Krone, Views of Diana
Amelia Chang, THE CHRONICLES OF A SINNER
Jade Kleiner, Sixty One Weeks, Three Days After The Concussion
Gaby V Everett, Lesson 3.14
Valerie Babenkova, Comfort in the Endless Forever of Underneath and Not

Fiction
RJ Aurand, Mind Palace V. 1.2.1

Claudia Leffie, Forwarded Many Times

Nonfiction
Ashton Freeman, Neither, Both

Odin Meadows, Elbow

Art
endwell, neuroscience must reckon with the antipsychiatry movement

Joshua Kayo, Drips for Eyes, My Canvas; I see in Jackson Pollock

Troy Droussiotis, Glamour Girl Magenta

1131

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/05/2026

ISSUE 12 IS HERE!!!! Featuring writing, art, and audio/visual media by @carterhaugh.bsky.social, @jaespersmyth.bsky.social, and more! manyworlds.place/issue-12/

Issue 12

EK Krone
Views of Diana

Wenyi
Closing Time

Tamar Ashdot
cataloguing care

J.A. Espersmyth
How to Sate the Writhing Eldritch Mass Inside You

U.M. Agoawike
Meat Gods & Metal Supplicants

Amelia Chang
THE CHRONICLES OF A SINNER

Maze Raghavan Cohen
My Liberation Work has been Damn Ableist
Introduction
Future
Fish Guts
Farmer yells at me for eating processed tortillas.

Katy Bond
Last Night in this Sweet and Lonely World

Marina Crustacean
Two Pieces
Untitled
When I First Came Out

Claudia Leffie
Forwarded Many Times

River Vetter
featherbound

0176

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/02/2026

@acd.works's "CELEBRATING OBESITY" was our first acceptance for this issue, and an enthusiastic one –– a satirical + deeply serious piece on self-love and a refusal of anti-fatness. manyworlds.place/issue-11/a-c...

A tan, paper-textured image with brown accents. The words “CELEBRATING OBESITY!” sit at the top in a large bubble font. A round botanical drawing is faded into the background of the image. Two round abstract shapes almost like a person kneeling frame the top paragraph. The text reads, in alternating cursive and bubble fonts: “You are invited—cordially of course—to the wedding of A.C.D & THE FAT THAT HANGS OFF HER BULGING STOMACH. On the EVERY DAY of the EVERY MONTH of the EVERY YEAR. At THE SOFT FEELING OF SUNLIGHT DANCING ACROSS HER EXPOSED THIGHS. Join the 300 POUNDS OF WONDERFUL, UNDULATING FLESH for a night to remember and a large, full life to treasure. The DENSITY OF LOVE, the WEIGHT OF HUMOR, and the HEAVINESS OF SPIRIT to follow. P.S. All gifts in the form of advice, diet pills, or similar smelling bullshit will be torn open and stabbed with a thin person’s fragile rib. P.P.S. The happy couple is only accepting well wishes, poor wishes or any wishes in between in the form of COLD HARD CASH. P.P.P.S. Pay up, shut up, crack like the twig you are.”

174

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/02/2026

@odinmeadows.bsky.social, a returning contributor, brings us two short pieces, written with his trademark strangeness. manyworlds.place/entries/issu...

Elbow
I’m no good at licking my elbows, have less luck connecting with strangers. Outside,

across the street there are two stick-like poshes with their elbows stuffed in each other’s mouths, licking with tongue and even a light nibble

of teeth. I’m sick with jealousy but also affronted by such public displays of distasteful interaction. So I go out, in my waiter garb,

and I stipple my feet up to their table, demand them to disconnect. They do but they look at me

with the coldest expression. I instantly regret my existence, start backing into the street like a drunk pigeon. Everybody has

the coldest of faces. My boss is shaking his head, not in anger, but in an inconvenient grief like at a funeral for a relative you didn’t

know well. I’m fired.

151

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/02/2026

@ashtonistyping.bsky.social demonstrates their brilliant flash skills with Neither, Both, a critique of social commonsense and gesture of hope toward something better. manyworlds.place/issue-11/ash...

Tell me that the kids don’t know where potatoes come from. Tell them it’s from the earth and they might not eat anymore. Kids don’t eat enough dirt anymore. Me? I’m about as butch as a girl-child making a mudcake. This is how to play house. We’re all the mom but you can be the dad. There’s a dog that’s also a cat. The children are all well fed. There is a rosebush and also a clover garden. One bedroom. This is where you can keep your things in my life. (In the bottom left drawer.) Fold it next to my boyhood and I will hold it against my chest when you leave. This is where I keep my toothbrush and you can keep yours next to mine. This is how you time travel. This is how you look back with feeling. This is how to open the garage door from the inside. Teach me how to drive and I’ll teach you something about poetry. This is how to find the center of gravity. It’s between your ear and your chin. It’s the distance between us October-June. This is how to do laundry together and yes, I will remember the dryer sheets. I know about the oat milk in the morning, the reality tv before bed. This is how to be a boy. It requires a lot of blush. Add mascara to your mustache. This is how to be a girl. I know a thing or two about it. Tell me about the girl from high school. Tell me about your name and I’ll tell you about my mother. This is how to lick the floorboards, Andrea Gibson. I’m on WikiHow every night figuring out how to tell you. This is How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, Kate Hudson. This is how to. This is something I can’t explain in words so let’s transcend language, let’s press our foreheads together, let’s call it even.

130

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/02/2026

@joannemerriam.bsky.social's erasures reflect the "inadequacy of language" as well as the possibilities located within the creative imagination. manyworlds.place/entries/issu...

on a whited-out background reading:

alienation echo

The
inadequacy of language
is extended
where words are a refuge

retreat to the wilderness

fairy tales and
history
the duplicity of language
fiction, developing a series
of love triangles.

160

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/02/2026

@kmbezner.bsky.social's "This Morning My Coffee Is Bitter" is evocative and claustrophobic, rich with color and imagery. manyworlds.place/issue-11/km-...

two locks latched means
everyone’s still tucked inside
buried deep, closed up,

except a crack in my upstairs window
balancing the dusty heat with outside air

where the first late snow drowns
the black twisted stalks of
peas, strawberries, tomatoes

strangled fruits clawing up from a pale grave
stewing in their dark plastic pots since June.

even once softly tended peppers
dangle rotting from their vine.

131

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/02/2026

Welcome to issue 11! It shaped up to be thick with liberatory gestures – on disability, fatness, Blackness, youth, and more. Creatives across/against genre and medium tackle pressing issues of disposibility and resistance. manyworlds.place/issue-11/ Some highlights:

issue 11

Dandelion Jester
The Monster Was Only A Child

Robin Kapon
bb my step is a terrifyd sprint

Obstreperous Allotrope
a word for my caregiver

KM Bezner
this morning my coffee is bitter

Mei Backof
Do Stop Asking, Please

Joanne Merriam
Three Erasure Pieces
alienation echo
Competing with churches for the imagination of present-day
metamorphosis (chrysalis)

ju(mia)
for Brother Marcellus Williams – may he know life in death

Ashton Freeman
Neither, Both

Odin Meadows
Two Pieces
Elbow
gor(g)e(ore)

a.c.d
CELEBRATING OBESITY

Jacob Nye
Hole in the Ground

Nonbeaunary
You Are Not My Mother (for Alison Bechdel)

11711

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/11/2025

We're incredibly excited about all of the pieces in this issue, including Haley Bossé's piece, "A ( )en Body Comes to Shore." manyworlds.place/issue-10/hal...

A ( )en Body Comes to Shore
by Haley Bossé

Because the shore is an alarm set just loud enough to break my fugue, I silence it but don’t go back to sleep.

Because I wake with pounding everywhere, the doctor is unsure how to classify the ( ). Because I reclassify my ( ) as boring, I can’t rest long enough to unmatter it from my brain.

Because I cannot rest, I muster up the anti-spoons to spiral out while workshopping. Workshopping, I spiral into pain until it pops and coats me with its whiteworms.

My sister texts to let me know she’s visiting. I let her know she’s visiting without telling her I’m ( ). While visiting, she’s ( ).

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/11/2025

We are so excited to share issue 10 with you, featuring brilliant creatives like @blackcattales.bsky.social, @kathrynreese.bsky.social, @pleomorphic2.bsky.social, @dihyatamaghza.bsky.social, @rjaurand.bsky.social, and more! (anti-war dinosaur courtesy of Emma Johnson-Rivard)

“Triceracopter,” a life-sized statute of a dinosaur-helicopter hybrid, lives in the University of Cincinnati Library. It was created by Patricia Renick, built out of a helicopter used and scarred in the Vietnam War.

197

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 31/08/2025

a huge congratulations to our nominees, C. Suttee, @spencerwriting.bsky.social, and Nathan Erwin, for Orison's Best Spiritual Literature award! We're so honored to help give voice to so many complex & multifacted relationships with the universe and our place in it.

141

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/08/2025

Zoe Korte's flash pr/oem is evocative & nostalgic & deeply sensory. We love it. Find Zoe at @sundresspub.bsky.social, and their work in @newwordspress.bsky.social, @enbylife.bsky.social, @maudlinhouse.bsky.social, and more. manyworlds.place/issue-9/zoe-...

Acid rain is an uncut song that emeralds our matte metropolis, slippery with dirt and chlorophyll, a bright black spot on God’s sweaty palm. I can’t write music, says my other dog, before vomiting carrot greens on the hand-me-down rug. Certainty is a Happy Meal toy in a landfill, proudly assembled in the factory employing all the folks in town. If you’re here, and I’m here, who is going to feed and water the dogstar? It has gone quiet with pain, but its one remaining eye can still see faraway shapes.

285

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/08/2025

endwell's anti-psychiatry collage, "neuroscience must reckon with the antipsychiatry movement." endwell has also been featured in @beestung.bsky.social. Their novel, OLYOKE, is forthcoming with @tenebrouspress.bsky.social! manyworlds.place/issue-9/endw...

Collage art with a poem featuring images from the “Innovations in Health Equity Incubator,” text about horrific conditions at Rikers in the 70s and a contemporary jail break, the Biodefense Commercialization Fund, and a paper about “control-averse behavior.”

Poem reads:

neuroscience must reckon with the antipsychiatry movement

the important thing is that the more measurements we take, the better we can tell if your numbers are good or bad!

right now it’s seeming like your numbers might be abnormal,

so we’re designing a program of study to make sure every aspect of your biology aligns with the average for your sex/race/class/neurotype. We’re going to pull out all the stops. We are scrutinizing every aspect and we can confidently say that you’re almost certainly wrong, on an intrinsic biological level. We are making an obscene amount of money doing this and we’re opening a new center.

2106

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 15/08/2025

We're so excited to announce issue 9, our TWO YEAR (!!!!) anniversary issue! Featuring @sylvie-althoff.bsky.social, @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social, @mostlymosspoetry.bsky.social, and more.

$Issue 9 Wenyi Xue god bless America endwell neuroscience must reckon with the antipsychiatry movement Chase Anderson C:\Users\gnight\Desktop\who am i\README.txt Ziqr Gödel and Me On A Dark and Stormy Night Benjamin Rodriguez Poem 91 nat raum if bpd could talk Troy Droussiotis GLAMOUR GIRL GLAMIFESTO (or A Manifesto in Non-Being) Glamour Girl Magenta GLAMOUR GIRL 2K Sylvie Althoff Last of the Cigarette Gremlins jp thorn Two Pieces mysticism for beginners fortune cookie aphorisms Zoe Korte O Aslan Valerie Babenkova Comfort in the Endless Forever of Underneath and Not kendall q lamb power fantasy, or sheepgulls$

22011

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/05/2025

and @odinmeadows.bsky.social's clever, ingenious "town towntown," which made both of us editors go, "omg...good satire is so fucking delicious" manyworlds.place/issue-8/odin...

Town Towntown
by Odin Meadows

Note: This work is best viewed on a widescreen device.

In Town Towntown, the people do people things that townpeople do.

Now, townpeople not from Town Towntown are still townpeople but they’re not Town Towntown townpeople, but still townpeople.

Now me, well, I’m not a Town Towntown people, not a townpeople neither. Nobody’s told me what I am.

042

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/05/2025

we're obsessed with @twospiritdyke.bsky.social's artwork and rich, textured image descriptions (click for alt!) manyworlds.place/issue-8/myle...

(MY) LIGHT RECOGNIZES THE VOID (IN YOU), 2023. A digitally scanned black ink felt pen drawing.

This abstract piece employs repetitive linework, stippling, and negative space to create striking contrasts and evoke a sense of connection and duality. The composition features two vaguely human-shaped figures standing side by side, holding hands.

The left figure has an ovular, pure-black face with cut-out shapes. Its head is textured with stippling, where the density of dots is highest along the top border and gradually disperses outward. At its neck and chest lies a pure-black hole, which similarly disperses into stipples, creating a gradient effect. The body is composed of repeated curved lines, flowing in various directions, while straight, parallel lines emerge from the body, becoming denser toward the lower half. The figure’s left hand connects to the right figure’s right hand through a concentrated cluster of stipples, symbolizing their bond.

The right figure features a face composed of parallel lines radiating outward toward the left figure from a larger black hole, which is defined by stippling along its outer edge. These lines extend outward from the back of the figure’s head in a triangular shape, beginning with a concentrated cluster and gradually spreading wider as they move away from the left figure. On the figure’s chest, a white hole is created using negative space and stippling, providing a striking contrast to the surrounding black elements. The stippling connects to the figure’s pure-black hands and feet, giving the impression that the stipples flow outward from these dark sources, thereby creating a dynamic interplay between light and void.

141

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/05/2025

....and Jennifer Jantzen's "Maternal Impressions"! manyworlds.place/issue-8/jenn...

Maternal Impressions
by Jennifer Jantzen

In 1726, a poor peasant woman named Mary Toft claimed to have given birth to several rabbits.
She was later branded a liar.

The appearance of blue pigment in animals is an optical illusion.

my head / is filled / with rabbits /
/ LIAR /
my brain / imprinted / with shadows /
/ LIAR /
my heart / wallpapered / a nursery / room /
with an animal / pattern /
/ LIAR / no /
the baby / took flight— /
look! / a doctor has / seen it
he (look!)s / at my soul through /
an opening / opening / up /
for rabbits / and crowds / and crowds /
and crowds / now people shake heads /
for reasons / to shake heads / is she
serious? / no / who fuckd her? / no /

121

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/05/2025

We have a truly fabulous mix of forms in this issue - including @pinkpossumclub.bsky.social's Wordle-Ku pieces... manyworlds.place/issue-8/cam-...

Wordle-ku #1211
A F T E R
P O L L S
C L O S E
F R E S H
B L O O D
S T A I N

Wordle-ku #1221
B E L O W
G R A V E
S T O N E
M U T E D
B O N E S
S H O U T

132

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/05/2025

We're so excited to welcome issue 8 of manywor(l)ds into this particular world, featuring work by @bogiperson.bsky.social, @1159cowboy.bsky.social, @torpor-chamber.bsky.social, @sadeebee.bsky.social, + more! (pictured below is Aylli Cortez's "in this viral struggling") manyworlds.place/issue-8/

A blue wall is overlaid with pink and white strips at its center, alluding to the transgender flag. The words ONE THING YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT are pasted on top of it. On the top-left corner, a person looks out their window. The words MARCH 2020 are attached. On the left side, several pink drops fall onto the found-collage poem. On the bottom-right corner, a person’s face is obscured by the cut-out of a phone screen, from which a plant bearing pink and blue leaves blooms.

1157

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 23/03/2025

don't miss our awp-debut! we'll be out like slutty little lambs with @altmilkmag.bsky.social, @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social, and @querenciapress.bsky.social on Wednesday 3/26!

072

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 7: Se Sonhar é Uma Flor (If Dreaming is a Flower) by C. Suttee manyworlds.place/issue-7/c-su...

The Hubble Space telescope turns off passing over my head as I prune cosmos flowers.1 They are little orange radio telescopes and my body intercepts the signal.2 I am feverishly, barely awake, a spinning compass.3 Tonight I will dream another one of those famous radioactive dreams of the sun.4 I leave the heads of the flowers on the ground. Eventually I sleep. The particles5 that slip through the weakened atmosphere seed the soils of sleep-consciousness, unfold in me a flower…

. . ˜*•. ˜”° •. ˜”°••°”˜. •°”˜˜”*°•.˜”° ••° ”˜. • ° * ” ˜• •////

. • *˜

Snip!6 Waking like shears. I dress in dawn, quiet as the satellites that drift overhead, and sift through the fallen petal minutia for meaning. I give water to the cosmos flowers, alien bright. And the dreams, pruned by waking, decompose, finally, into something earthy, digestible. I tremble, a little, for experience is illuminated and our star is conscious.7

010

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 6: Plastic-eating fungus caused doomsday by @slashnburnett.bsky.social manyworlds.place/issue-6/emma...

Plastic-eating fungus caused doomsday[2][3]
by Emma Burnett

Originally published in Nature:Futures

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the End of Plastic (2029) article, about the Tremella purgare fungus, released into the Gulf of Mexico following the TransAm War Oil Spill, and the knock-on impact of the attempted bioremediation. This page has been listed as a level-3 vital article in Earth. If you can improve it, please do.

Deadly fungi?
Can an expert in this field please expand on or link to the meaning of ‘deadly fungus’ in the opening sentence. Deadly fungi is a disambiguation page and as a non-expert I am uncertain whether it applies here. —8ditor

Update details
There’s some updated research explaining the spreading mechanism the fungi used to move from sea to land. The spores eject hard, and once airborne, can latch on to any oil-based synthetic material, and then they grow and digest it. Here’s the ref: (Spread of mycelium oil to plastics) —jamirazzz

Dumping an untested fungus into the environment like they’ve learned nothing from biological pest control. —8ditor

I think it was tested (Lab Results - FUNGUS.PDF). Just not well enough, I guess. —SamePanicDifferentDisco

Article name
Doomsday doesn’t seem like a good fit for this article. It’s supposed to focus on the introduction of the oil-digesting fungus introduced into the Gulf of Mexico. —Kinoko

It does that in section one tho, look: Development and introduction into the ecosystem. It’s causing major chaos. —DoraTheExSpora

Chaos isn’t the same as doomsday. Suggest re-naming to ‘Unintended consequences of fungal petrochemical control.’ —Kinoko

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 5: TRANS NDN ARCHIVE by Kai Minosh Pyle manyworlds.place/issue-5/kai-...

TRANS NDN ARCHIVE
by Kai Minosh Pyle

in the aftermath of everything indigenous scientists discovered ways to determine the precise shade of depressionanxietyadhdautismcptsdschizoborderline-induced delirium trans ndns were experiencing at any given moment. the scale only came in dsm certified flavors because that was the language we used at the time.

still, we must recognize that the indigenous scientists of their time thought they were doing a service for trans ndns. they believed, however strange it may seem, that if only they could assign a specific hexadecimal triplet to the emotions of the trans ndns when they experienced suffering, then they could induce some kind of public empathy or maybe even healing.

161

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 5: DAWN SHATTERS THROUGH MY SPLINTERED GUTS AND THROWS SPARKLING LIGHT ACROSS THE WALLPAPER; OR, ON TRAUMA AND ITS CONSEQUENCES by Nora Hikari manyworlds.place/issue-5/nora...

II. Dialogue with a Lover (an Intra-System Discourse)

<The past cannot save you. It holds an infinite amount of wisdom to be mined, but that wisdom can only be put to use in the present, as a way of directing the course of the future. You cannot go back. The inevitable march forward of time is a trauma that every single human in history has had to contend with and either overcome or succumb to. Will you march into the future, stalwart, unyielding, into that roiling unknown? Will you take those brave steps into the void of absolute possibility? Will you free yourself from the chains of your sentimentality? Or will you perish like a fucking dog?>

It is so hard, and I am so tired.

<Say that you are tired. Say that you need to pause. Pause but do not stop. Rest but do not waver. Stumble but do not falter. It is by love that I hold you to a higher standard. It is by love that I expect more from you. By love I am disappointed when you fall short. By love I am frustrated when you are petty. By love I ask you for your kindness when you are cruel, for your wisdom when you are slipshod, your patience in your haste, your bravery in your fear, your strength when you stumble, your love when you are hateful, your anger when you are wronged.>

164

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 4: Thirteen Ways I Might Misrepresent My Transfemininity to Suit a Heroic Narrative That Reassures Us Both by Callie Jennings manyworlds.place/issue-4/call...

It's Kind of Like I'm James Bond

With all the gadgetry?
You really think I'd fling a barb that missed?
I've a reputation to uphold.
Inimitable style. Invulnerable remove.

When you're a thousand people, all real,
you need never say never to any of them.

It's Kind of Like I'm Doctor Who

Would you look at that!? Survived again! Or rather
resurrected—sturdily enough! Alors! We're off to meet
the miracles at the margins of space-time. And be one!

It's Kind of Like I'm the Hero with A Thousand Faces

Dear friends! Today I venture forth
From the Categories assigned on common days
Into a Transition of supernatural wonder.

Dysphoria and Transphobia will there be encountered
And a decisive Surgery won.

Soon I shall return from this Mystery
With the Power to make you truly benevolent
If you would but use the Right Pronouns.

It's Kind of Like I'm Neo

Obvi.

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 3: pov: a commenter on your r/ptsdhumor meme has just alerted you that you have tinnitus by @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social

all i said was what if you wanted to relax
your back and shoulder muscles but god said
the body keeps the score? & all of a sudden
i am paying attention & i’ve got all this
ringing in my ears. i shouldn’t be surprised—
i still can’t tell if heat is friend or foe

or maybe frenemy, as my shoulders only
relax into spasms on the holy heating pad.
one eardrum whines especially sharply
& then blacks out for a minute or so
like god or whoever took a spike
to my cochlea. i am half vibrations,

half empty room, all born of things
i wish i didn’t have to remember still.
then as fast as stop hearing, i find sounds
again, still tense, still tingling. & i teem
with the source of the tension, waiting
for the rancor, for the ringing.

120

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 3: Lavender Festival Ephemera by Allison Masangkay (audio!)

[00:00:00] Person’s voice: s- s- s- s- s- s- ♪ ocean waves crashing ♪
[00:00:02] Person’s voice: s- s- su- (distant voice): Oh!
[00:00:03] (click from tea steeper) Person’s voice: sugat
[00:00:04] ♪ lush sustained chord of synthesized ambient pads with a thick, bright tone ♪
[00:00:09] ♪ series of quick, bubbly, fluid notes ♪
[00:00:14] ♪ lush sustained synthesized ambient pads with a dark chord progression ♪
[00:00:21] ♪ more quick, bubbly, fluid notes ♪
[00:00:28] ♪ more quick, bubbly, fluid notes ♪
[00:00:29] ♪ several tones of clicky, bouncy noises ♪
[00:00:31] ♪ lush sustained synthesized ambient pads with a deeper but brighter chord ♪
[00:00:41] ♪ more quick, bubbly, fluid notes ♪ ♪ ocean waves crashing then fading away ♪ (distant voice): Over there!
[00:00:49] ♪ lush sustained synthesized ambient pads with a darker, deeper chord progression ♪ ♪ repeated tones of clicky, bouncy noises ♪ ♪ faint moving lasers shooting ♪

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 2: The Languages of the Tower of Babel by @lilliekoi.bsky.social

The Language of the Tower
The language of the Tower has room for only one truth: The Tower of Babel must rise even higher.

In this sense, it is the perfect language. To know it is to understand not only it, but the world itself. The Earth becomes a birthplace for clay and stones. Trees become ladders and ramps to scale its heights.

And most important of all, I become a pair of hands with a beautiful task to do. The task must be beautiful, because it is the only language we share.

It is the tower itself which teaches us this language. It is vast, greater than anything except the Earth, which was made to supply it. Therefore, it is important. Its immense encircling wall is jagged and covered with ladders and scaffolds. Therefore, it is incomplete.

The Quiet Language
We are supposed to speak only the language of the Tower. But of course, it was always more complicated than that. When two people came at the same time to a place where only one could cross, the Tower cannot tell them how to get across. It cannot decide who was to carry bricks and who was to place them and who was to haul them up by pulleys from the world below.

We aren’t allowed to create such a language. Only the Language of the Tower was allowed.

And so, we make a quiet language.

In the quiet language, we smile at each other across the gap, and you step aside to let me pass. I look at you, and, without words, thank you for it.

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 2: these two wolfgirl moments by Adele Nwankwo manyworlds.place/issue-2/adel...

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

issue 1: Dara by Gla4. manyworlds.place/issue-1/gla4/

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 06/03/2025

here are some of my personal favorite pieces we've published at manywor(l)ds to give you a bit of inspiration. issue 1: I AM NOT AFRAID OF TRANSSEXUALS by @jestintzi.bsky.social. Our first ever best microfiction selectee. manyworlds.place/issue-1/john...

As a new emergency law goes into effect, a step toward making my existence illegal, I walk into a sporting goods store in Liberty, Missouri and buy a semi-automatic target pistol.

The woman behind the counter doesn’t mind my lavender nails. The spoon rings on my fingers. She puts pistols in my hands. She upsells me. I buy three cartons of rounds. I’m in and out in fifteen minutes.

South on Highway 71, five miles over the speed limit, I cannot tell which part of me is paranoia and which is pattern recognition. The gun sits in my lap, in my hand, pointing at the empty passenger seat. The safety is on, but yes: she’s loaded. She smells amazing.

I’ll name the gun Liberty and she’ll sleep beside me in bed. I’ll walk her with my dog, every day, through a neighborhood that has always felt safe. I’ll bring her to the gym where I’ll learn Muay Thai from a local flyweight champion. She’ll wait for me in the locker room where I’ll pretend to be a man.

I’ll reach for Liberty nervously, at first, then habitually, in the way one learns to reach for a cellphone. I’ll begin to long for the country, where I can plink cans any time of day. I’ll long to print out little photos of fascists to put on the face of every can I plink. I’ll clean Liberty every week, even the rare weeks I do not fire her.

I’ll get on a first name basis with a man at a shooting range in Raytown. I’ll put on lipstick. People will give me looks, but I’ll become a markswoman. I’ll cap every angel on the head of a pin.

As I drive home, the world widens. Sharpens. There’s a future for me, and people like me, somewhere out here. It smells of gunmetal.

120

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 12/12/2024

Congrats Kai Pyle @greatlakesqueer.bsky.social + Frances Klein @fklein907.bsky.social - our nominees for Best Microfiction 2025! Both use speculative tactics to interrogate contemporary life - Pyle, gender + settler colonialism, and Klein, the labor of motherhood. cc: @bestmicrofiction.bsky.social

Guide to Interpreting Dreams III
I send my son to school and call in sick so that I can sleep.

I dream that I send my son to school and call in sick so that I can sleep. After my son leaves, something that looks like my son remains in the house. The Not-Son walks around the house in my son’s clothes, plays with his toys. The Not-Son does everything my son would do if I hadn’t sent him to school so that I can sleep. I am not sleeping because my husband wants me to care for the Not-Son. It is not safe, he says, to leave him unsupervised. He does not say whose safety is at risk. I try to tell him that the Not-Son is not our son, but he does not care. I do not know what I will do, whether going forward I will have two children: a son and a Not-Son.

I wake to a still house. All day, around each corner, just out of sight: a presence.

Not my son, but not exactly not him, either.

in the aftermath of everything indigenous scientists discovered ways to determine the precise shade of depressionanxietyadhdautismcptsdschizoborderline-induced delirium trans ndns were experiencing at any given moment. the scale only came in dsm certified flavors because that was the language we used at the time.

still, we must recognize that the indigenous scientists of their time thought they were doing a service for trans ndns. they believed, however strange it may seem, that if only they could assign a specific hexadecimal triplet to the emotions of the trans ndns when they experienced suffering, then they could induce some kind of public empathy or maybe even healing.

luminous in their splendor, the trans ndn rainbow spectra filled rows upon rows of circular beadwork designs. they radiated outwards and inwards on star quilts. they even lived in the gradients of earrings sold on the latest exploitative crafting site. what began as a purely scientific endeavor spiraled into the leftover worlds until beautiful trans ndn trauma was dangling from the necks and ears of even the cheapest d-list celebrity. until the remnant department stores had copied the designs of trans ndn madness into the latest seasonal plastic. they were everywhere and nowhere at five cents a pop.

feeding frenzy came and went and trans ndns were still there, still screaming, each sound crystalizing in a string of beads. and after the strings withered away the beads were still there. in the middens, the superfunds, and the plain old burials. in rivers and in microfibers and eventually in the lining of cells in our bodies. it would take centuries for us to realize it, but this too was a kind of resilience.

eventually the indigenous scientists gave up on their work. they blamed the trans ndns for polluting the earth with their pain. but this was nothing new for those who were used to living in a world built out of their invisible aching presence. the only difference was that now everyone could …

141

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 27/11/2024

Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott @iamgoingtocry.bsky.social is a queer disabled poet. Their debut collection, Gospels For The Tongue-Tied, is forthcoming with Kith Books. Read portrait of a broken printer below! manyworlds.place/issue-6/qets...

[editor’s note: the film is incomplete, watch with caution]

the printer is broken
oh no. it only gives me washed out candids of someone
else’s smile.
occasionally some paper bones,
a rotten wisdom tooth hanging from
a flesh thread in a red mouth.
it’s all aquamarine and violet stained, i’ve replaced the
ink seven times now.
my printer keeps crying on my photos.
i think it’s grieving. in the night it
cries itself to sleep. in the morning
there are pictures of [garbled, incoherent] clinging to my
coffee machine.
oh no. i tried to print out an essay yesterday,
but i just got a page of someone asking me to

[editor’s note: the film cuts out here, no footage available for 30s. Don’t turn your screens off]

041

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 27/11/2024

Caiti Quatmann @caititalks.bsky.social wrote Yoke (MyrtleHaus) and is EIC of @hndlmag.bsky.social. Her work has been published by Samfiftyfive, Thread LitMag and others. Read Greetings from Glacier National Park below! manyworlds.place/issue-6/cait...

It’s warming, and all my ice is so thin
that it’s impossible to shield the past
from my inevitable future. Every morning

the sun greets my peaks and every morning
I shed my glaciers with a kind of ancient melancholy
they’ve started calling climate change.
The brave pines, braving altitude on Logan Pass.

The elk grazing near swift currents
and pausing mid-chew.
We’re all fading, even in Montana,

and if this place won’t keep its cool for us,
I guess I’m in decline and in for more thaw.
If you are the hiker at Hidden Lake
somewhere in a city, planning your next escape

and thinking of wearing green,
I would like to be a trail in that escape.
I would like all the paths through my heart

across the decades to slow their melting
and stop tormenting me. Let me preserve snow
on another ridge, in another era
where someone straps on their snowshoes

and steps lightly. And breathes in deeply.
There’s a pause. The elk looking up
lowers its head. The wildflowers bloomed
too early this year. Maybe it’s too late.

100

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 27/11/2024

Avra Margariti @avramargariti.bsky.social is a Greek author and sea monster, whose work can be found in @strangehorizons.bsky.social, @thedeadlands.com, F&SF, @podcastle.org, and elsewhere. Read Games Girls Play below! manyworlds.place/issue-4/avra...

Games Girls Play
by Avra Margariti

Today we play pretend: sleeping beauties, all of us girls at recess. We have no glass coffins so we each must steal from the overflowing trashcan a lemonade bottle. We must shatter it on the ground, arrange each piece around us, jagged reliquary. No flowers to hold in our death-clawed hands, so we grasp orange peels from lunch, dig our chewed nails in. The orange’s porous skin, makeshift bandage for our glass-sliced fingers.

We practice being hollow: anatomical Venuses, waiting to be filled.

110

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 27/11/2024

nat raum is EIC of @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social and their work can be found in @thebroadkillreview.bsky.social, Corporeal, and @anmlymag.bsky.social. Read pov: a commenter on your r/ptsdhumor meme has just alerted you that you have tinnitus below: manyworlds.place/issue-3/nat-...

164

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 27/11/2024

Robin Gow (it/fae/he) is a trans poet and witch. Its work can be found in POETRY, New Delta Review, and Shenandoah, and is represented by @awfulagent.bsky.social. Read Ziphius below: manyworlds.place/issue-3/robi...

Once, I drowned a bird
in the backyard
and it turned
into a whale. Once I stole
from my mother’s wallet
and from the wallet
birds flew and flew
until I confessed.
I ate only powdered milk
until I felt pure again.
So much about being
is about un-being.
I try to say,
“this is not my body”
when I put on
my favorite dress.

Am I on my way
to becoming a nudist? Am I
on my way to drowning
another bird?
A bird is a symbol of freedom
only not in this poem.
In this poem a bird is
a symbol
for the part of the face
that doesn’t belong
in the ocean. I had a priest
once call me “water owl.”
He had boney cold hands.
Sometimes people ask me
“Are you alright?”
when they see I am not alright.
They are asking me to lie.
I will not lie, reader,
especially not to you.
I am the depths. I am what
cannot breathe. I eat men
and knit their bones
into stirrups.

120

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 27/11/2024

Kai Minosh Pyle @greatlakesqueer.bsky.social is a trans NDN (Métis and Sault Ste. Marie Ojibwe) and multigenre writer and scholar. Read TRANS NDN ARCHIVE below: manyworlds.place/issue-5/kai-...

100

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 27/11/2024

join us in celebrating our 2024 pushcart nominees: Kai Minosh Pyle @greatlakesqueer.bsky.social Robin Gow nat raum @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social Avra Margariti @avramargariti.bsky.social Caiti Quatmann @caititalks.bsky.social Qetsi'ah Joachim-Baggott @iamgoingtocry.bsky.social

Kai Minosh Pyle, TRANS NDN ARCHIVE
Robin Gow, Ziphius
nat raum, pov: a commenter on your r/ptsdhumor meme has just alerted you that you have tinnitus
Avra Margariti, Games Girls Play
Caiti Quatmann, Greetings from Glacier National Park
Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott, portrait of a broken printer

2125

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/11/2024

Patty Paine's stunning visual works are right at home in this place-centered issue. Paine is the director of Diode Poetry and has been published in @versedaily.bsky.social, Waxwing, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. manyworlds.place/issue-6/patt...

“End Stage” features overgrown brush and the silhouette of an old billboard that has fallen into ruin and is a titling rusted frame. The colors are muted, with purple, pink, and brown tones. The top and bottom of the image have streaks and patterns that resemble flowing lines, giving the photo an ethereal effect as if the image is deteriorating. The focus is soft, and the overall mood is dystopic and somber.

“Crisis” depicts a forest scene with sunlight streaming through tall trees, casting long shadows across the forest floor. The sunlight appears distorted and diffused at the top, creating an abstract, colorful effect that resembles damaged or decaying film. The overall mood is eerie, with a sense of natural beauty and decay.

072

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 16/11/2024

a couple pieces to get you excited! Christy Tending's "Postcards from Missing You" is a stunning meditation on place and distance. Tending has been featured in @electriclit.bsky.social, @therumpus.bsky.social, @catapult.co, and beyond! manyworlds.place/issue-6/chri...

Postcards from Missing You
by Christy Tending

Muir Beach, California

If you were here, I would have had to stop you from running toward the woods, into the sea, too far, too fast. There is a stillness and a slowness to being in a place without you that I do not prefer, but find unnerving. I want you to be here so that you can run your fingers through the cypress needles like hair and watch the pelican jackknife itself into the water, again and again. I want you to hear the way the wind shakes the house. I want you to know the way the air smells. I want to see your face when you realize it is not “cat,” but “lynx.” I want to remember the intimacy of those split seconds when you are not running off somewhere, the urgency of this age before you run away from me forever.

131

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 25/09/2023

We also have a list of books on our website we'd love to publish reviews for. This includes works from past contributors @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social & @tommywyattblake.bsky.social, but also other authors we love and admire, like @taylorbyas.bsky.social & Soula Emmanuel.

Some books we're interested in seeing reviews for right now include: WILD GEESE by Soula Emmanuel, random access memory by nat raum, foundwaves by nat raum, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times by Taylor Byas, MIASMIST by tommy wyatt blake.

141

manywor(l)ds :: place @manyworlds.place · 13/09/2023

Our inbox is looking a little empty right now 👀 Don't be shy, send us some work (*especially* if you're a multilingual writer / translator, multimedia creative, or if you're interested in writing a review/interview — we're open to queries for those!) Full guidelines at manyworlds.place/submit 🫶

Gmail graphic that reads "You've finished! Nothing in Inbox", with a picture of red, yellow, and blue boxes stacked with a long red triangular pennant above the red box.

042