Worms, Issue 8

Worms magazine is a literary style magazine that celebrates female and non-binary writer culture. Published bi-annually, Worms Magazine seeks to bring together the established and the emerging, the underground and the canonical, the lofty and the profane. Inspired by underground literary movements and the DIY Zine culture that shaped them, we cover topics that range from style, art, philosophy, theory, gender, politics/capitalism, contemporary culture, and social commentary. Although based in London. the writers. poets artists and illustrators that populate these pages are spread out across the globe.

In this issue:

In this special edition, double-cover issue of Worms, we bring you not one, but two cover stars. The indelible Tyson Yunkaporta and the iconic Anne Waldman adorn both sides of Worms 8 which can also be thought of as ‘The Elements Issue’. It was dreamt up in a dreary and grey August in London, while the rest of the world suffered through the hottest days on record. As we witnessed, and continue to witness, such climate catastrophe, we turned to the literature we love to help us understand, to challenge us, and to offer us some comfort.

The issue is split into four sections—earth, fire, air and water—but its roots and webs push beyond what we typically think of as ‘the natural’: tales from the kitchen from Rebecca May Johnson and Slutty Cheff, reflections on gardening and colonialism, writer's block and clogged pipes, how to blow up pipelines with Andreas Malm, grief and writing, recovery and nature with Octavia Bright, social mobility with Isabel Waidner, the wide range of issues raised by the underrepresentation of First Nations people in literature with Evelyn Araluen and much, much more.

We hope that this issue can be a flame of hope, inspiration, or something that simply sustains in such turbulent times.

Featuring

Tyson Yunkaporta, Isabel Waidner , Jamaica Kincaid, Melissa Broder , Evelyn Araluen, Bruce Pascoe, Octavia Bright, Nora Treatbaby , Nerea Calvillo , Anne Waldman , Alexis Pauline Gumbs , Léuli Eshrāghi, Madeline Cash , Andreas Malm, Rebecca May Johnson