#295 Mundane Magic with Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, bestselling author and inaugural winner of the Future Worlds Prize. Esmie’s debut novel, The Principle of Moments, was shortlisted for the 2018 Penguin WriteNow scheme and longlisted for a TikTok Book Award. She is also the author of Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road, which was published in 2024. This contest’s winner will not only be awarded $250 — they’ll also receive a special bonus prize: personal feedback from Esmie! Here's what she has to say about her takeover:

Go big or go home — that has been my mantra since I started my career. Following that, my work has always been larger than life; I've sent characters to the 60th century to battle the ruler of the galaxy, only to hurl them back in time to the 18th century, where they fall desperately in love with royalty. While working on my first novel, I drew inspiration from blockbuster movies and epic fantasy books written by literary greats, such as Gene Wolfe, N.K. Jemisin, C.S. Lewis, Robin Hobb, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Only recently have I turned my writerly attention to the more mundane magic — the web of power that connects us all, the glimmers of the otherworldly that make fiction so thrilling to explore… like an ordinary wardrobe leading to an extraordinary world, a dream that predicts the future, or a sword stuck in stone.

As a writer constantly on the lookout for inspiration, I try to see every moment as an opportunity to immerse myself in the ordinary strangeness of life — delighting in the everyday magic hidden in plain sight. The prompts below explore the space between reality and fantasy, inviting you to uncover worlds that might be waiting just beyond the threshold...

Special Update: The Results

Esmie's top pick for her takeover was "The 'What If' Lives of Jeanie the Dreamer" by Avery Sparks. Here's what she had to say about the winning story: "From the first few lines of this story, I knew I would be choosing it as the winner of my Prompts takeover, for its originality of concept and the thoughtful exploration of a moral quandary that is all too common; what if I had made a different choice, and lived a different life? Jeanie was a fantastically complex point of view character — I felt her struggles, her love for El, the passion she had for creating miniature models. But most vividly, I felt her competing desires for all her different lives. I felt it concealed a deeper insecurity about her circumstances, and the writer let that insecurity peek through in quiet moments, cementing the theme with an incredible line towards the end: 'She stared at her hands. Small, unharmed, unscarred hands, the hands that never risked anything, and made only small things.'

This story ended with an emotional gut punch; a bittersweet reunion that encompassed all the tangled emotions that were subtly portrayed and compassionately explored throughout the story. Their reunion drew Jeanie and El's story to a well-rounded, but realistic close, and left this reader with a head full of questions about other lives they might have lived... but mostly a renewed sense of gratefulness for the one they already have. I loved this story!"

Congratulations to contest winner Avery Sparks and the runners-up, JJ Rahier and Michael Blackmore!