Welcome to Inner Worlds issue seven.

Inside you’ll find twelve speculative stories, drawing on science fiction, fantasy, and horror to explore our internal landscapes; our thoughts, feelings, and other strange experiences.

The unconsciously-chosen theme of this issue is pregnancy, birth, and parenthood, as several stories contain these motifs, both beautiful and monstrous, sweet and painful.

Our cover for this issue features the luminous and enigmatic First Contact by Aimee Cozza.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I have. Thank you for your support, which makes Inner Worlds possible.

Sarah Jackson, May 2025

Table of contents

Cover art

Our cover for this issue is First Contact by Aimee Cozza.

Aimee Cozza is a freelance illustrator who primarily creates dark-beautiful illustrations in a variety of mediums based on the surreal and unsettling, with common themes of space, extraterrestrial worlds, fantasy beings, and ominous, off-putting subjects. She is also a writer, and loves animals and sci-fi.