The Worlds We Make

A beautiful, illustrated invitation to reimagine the rules that shape your life—and discover how the art of worldbuilding can help you build a world where you belong

For bestselling poet and artist Morgan Harper Nichols, worldbuilding has always been more than an act of imagination. It has been a necessary act to make sense of the world that never felt built for her. Inspired by the richly imagined universes of writers like Octavia E. Butler and N. K. Jemisin—and by her own journey with autism, ADHD, and sensory processing disorder—Morgan reveals how the same creative principles that shape fictional worlds can help us better understand the hidden systems, expectations, and stories that shape our everyday lives.

Illustrated throughout in her signature whimsical style, The Worlds We Make invites readers into an extraordinary collection of imagined landscapes. From the pull of curiosity in Land of Magnetic Fields to spaces of near-connection in The Glimmering Elsewhere to the power in the pause in Hovering Place and beyond, each “world” blends lyrical storytelling, personal reflection, thoughtful observations, and gentle practices that encourage readers to notice what draws them in, question inherited assumptions, and imagine new ways of living with greater agency, creativity, and self-compassion.

Rather than asking us to escape reality, Morgan shows us how imagination can unlock worlds we can fully engage with. Along the way, she explores how attention, sensitivity, rest, belonging, and creativity become building materials for lives that reflect who we truly are.

Filled with breathtaking artwork, poetic wisdom, and practical invitations for reflection, The Worlds We Make is both a keepsake and a companion—a guide for artists, dreamers, readers, and anyone longing to live with greater authenticity and hope.

Because every world is built by the rules that define it. And every one of us has the power to imagine—and begin building—a better one.