Excited for this! Thanks again to everyone who shared their thoughts with me through the survey

(the TL;DR version of the paper)

I'll send a copy of the finished paper to everyone who left their email address on the survey and I'll post it on the Inner Worlds website too :-)

"Fantastic stories can allow authors to "be more real", truthfully presenting experiences which lie outside accepted ideas of normality and reality."

10/10

"Additionally, genre conventions and tropes may act as a flexible framework of shared understanding that can be built upon or subverted."

9/?

"Locating stories in other realms can provide a safe container in which to explore challenging or unusual experiences."

8/?

"I have also created a short survey through which I'm gathering reflections from Inner Worlds' community of authors and readers."

7/?

"I will draw on my own observations and reflections as an editor, reader, and writer, and someone with lived experience of trauma and madness."

6/?

"And when these experiences are difficult or distressing, how writing and reading speculative stories can support our survival and healing."

5/?

"Through writing this paper I hope to better understand what speculative fiction specifically offers people as a way to understand and share their experience of their own thoughts, feelings, perceptions."

4/?

"As editor of Inner Worlds I have read each of the 3,000+ short stories submitted over the last few years, and this has only deepened my fascination with the potential of speculative fiction to explore and express these subjects."

3/?

"Their subjects include anxiety, depression, trauma, hearing voices, suicidality, OCD, and autism."
2/?

Abstract:

"This year digital magazine Inner Worlds is closing after publishing ten issues of short stories in which authors use elements from horror, science fiction, and fantasy to explore neurodivergence, psychological and emotional distress, madness and altered states."

1/?

The title of my paper is '"Be more real": Inner Worlds and the possibilities of speculative fiction for exploring and communicating mental and emotional experiences' which isn't terribly inspired but I was quite sleepy when I wrote it.

Excited for this! Thanks again to everyone who shared their thoughts with me through the survey

I enjoyed how peaceful this story felt

Rewilding by NC Maha My knees trembled under the weight of my jamun plant. I hefted it up my hip, wincing when the sapling twisted through my heart.

"I tended my seed alone, growing it deep within my bones. I watered and cherished it in marrow-drip and pleas. It grew into a fine sapling, reaching up into the skies.

But its roots would not take."

Read Rewilding by @ncmaha.bsky.social

inner-worlds.ghost.io/issue-10-rew...

The Girl Who Rang Bells by J. Mildanoff Wooden teeth, a painted snarl, fur around the crown. A mask meant to terrify winter itself into retreat. Meant to keep the things that lurk in the shadows at bay.

"The Kuker mask strapped to my back beneath my coat bumps softly against my spine with every step. Wooden teeth, a painted snarl, fur around the crown. A mask meant to terrify winter itself into retreat"

The Girl Who Rang Bells by @joannaobviously.bsky.social

inner-worlds.ghost.io/issue-10-the...

I totally failed to find an accompanying image which captures the beauty of this piece, btw. Don't miss it because of that!

An excellent short story with humor, grief, philosophy. It reminded me of how I feel when I'm desperate to get away from physical pain, how emotional pain can have the same impact, and also how disembodied some kinds of dissociation can be.

Appropriately, the ending gave me chills. In a good way.

Lungs by Busayo Akinmoju Fingers twisted from arthritis. A wet bandage over his right hand seeping a wound the local healer had inflicted. Trying, failing, to fix a hand only decade shy of a century.

#WomensHistoryMonth

BUSAYO AKINMOJU @busayo.bsky.social

…and “Lungs” in
@innerworlds.bsky.social

/end

inner-worlds.ghost.io/lungs-by-bus...

This was so difficult to write, and a few times I had to back off and redraft. Though couched in the terms of substance dependence, it's about isolation that has nothing to do with others. Something that @emmiechristie33.bsky.social completely gets (of course!) in this penetrating read.

Getting lost in a massive Sydney hospital past midnight inspired the kernel of this piece. Not an experience I'd recommend!

I'm humbled to read @emmiechristie33.bsky.social's take on this piece, and grateful to @sarahijackson.bsky.social & @innerworlds.bsky.social for giving it a home!

Oh gosh, wow. Just... just... ask me later because right now...wow 🤍

I'm gathering people's thoughts about mental health and speculative fiction through an online survey. I'd be very grateful if you could take 10 minutes to share your reflections on Inner Worlds and why it mattered to you, or on speculative fiction more broadly ❤️

www.cognitoforms.com/InnerWorlds1...

My Battery Is Low and It’s Getting Dark by Andy Boyle 4:14:02 p.m. — it’s me again. I know you won’t text me back, but I had to tell you I’m finally doing it. I’m leaving him. for good. forever.

was fortunate enough for @innerworlds.bsky.social to publish this story of mine. it features zero horses but it does have The Woods and also Andy's Usual Themes. enjoy!

❤️

Thank you! ❤️

I'm so grateful to be able to join the @innerworlds.bsky.social community at the end of this market's wonderful run. Thank you, Sarah, for a smooth and professional experience, and for creating a unique space for these kinds of stories for as long as you did!