paracosm
deeply felt imaginary world thought to originate from childhood
editor's note
Vertigo Editors (2026-27)
The scent of crayons sprawled across kitchen tile and wallpaper is stronger than a memory. When raindrops race down car windows, you trace it with opaque breaths and your index finger. Your dreams— haunting but nostalgic— reinvite you to the vivid childhood imaginations for you to learn again.
Remember when the floor was lava, or when the backyard was an undiscovered planet? Somewhere along the way, we stopped making up stories just to pass the afternoon. We learn to call it growing up. In this issue, we return to the worlds we made before we knew better: the strange, the impossible, the things we were too young to explain.
So, dear reader, take a little detour. Revisit the place you haven’t thought about in years. See if anything is still there.
With love (and a little imagination),
Emma Ha & Maddy Chang
Table of Contents
ART
Katherine Chi – Drawn
Casey Feng – Princess Diaries
Ingrid Mehus – Princess
Sophie Wang – Dream A Little Dream
Angeline Su – Paracosm
Caroline Feng – Shadows
Jiuxi Chu – Paracosmos
Audrey Tu – Bedtime Stories
Emma Ha – Take their word for it
Torsia Xu – Can I be a kid again?
Lorie Wu – Road Trip
WRITING
Akhila Hosagrahar – mirror mirror
Annie Chen – the closet
Youqian Pan – 《Comprehensive Manifesto of Your Dream School!》
Yutong Qiu – Kiss The Sky
Anna Wu – Shattering Glass
Avanthika Krishna – Lilac Street
Emily Cheah – Remains of a girl
Anika Khanna – Reverie
Zihan Lyu – my world that never was
Rachel Tat – seventh summer
Mia Qin – The Shadow Kingdom Below
Tianlin Liu – Another World
Aakriti Kasturi – A mixed and muddled drawing
Aarohi Shah – Red
Katie Shang – a different kind of star
Quincy Wu – Forget the Metal Angels
Maddy Chang – Operator Unavailable