TERSE. Journal

Writing on the Wall by T.S. McNeil

Depending how technical you want to get, murals are one of the oldest forms of human art. From stone age cave paintings to Greek frescos, humans have been drawing on the walls for thousands of years. Like with many of the oldest art forms, from signing to making rhythms on things, the habit has persisted…
Cordyceps by Selina Wells

Maybe I took the theme of ‘Mycelia’ too literally, but the first thing that came to mind was the fungus which controls its victims’ behavior before using them as nutrition for its fruiting bodies. I imagined the state of mind of an infected ant and tried to find some positives of transformation and re-embodiment amid…
An Interview With Maura Modeya by Aubrey King

You recently told me you were haunted by Sappho after performing a ritual as prescribed by CA Conrad. Is the spirit of Anne Carson in the room with us now? In all seriousness, how do you work with an ancient text full of silence and elisions? If I said yes, would you believe me? Anne…
JE NE SAIS QUOI: A REVIEW BY T.S. MCNEIL

Few are the creators who can truly balance skills. There are few places where this is clearer than in sequential art, also known as “comics.” Often as collaborative as film, creative teams of up to four skilled professionals are routinely used on a project. Fortunately, this is only one aspect of the industry as a…
365 Books in 365 Days – Episode 222 by Annie Walton Doyle

Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas “I liked the idea of Jude made into a clean slate for me, my touch negating all others, so sure then I would be the one, at last, to make an indelible mark. I wanted so badly for it to be true. That we might be like two virgins.”…
Communitarian Efforts – Richard Prince by Jason Collins

Richard Prince is an American artist who was born on the sixth of August 1949. However, he was not born in the United States of America, instead, he was born in the then-U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, which is now the country of the Republic of Panama. Prince is known as a controversial figure in the art…
Katabasis by Rachel Chanter

Rachel Chanter is a writer from Lancashire, currently based in London. Her work has featured in Ambit, Oxford Poetry, The North, and Neon. Her pronouns are she/her.
THE OOKY SPOOKY WORLD OF AURELIO VOLTAIRE BY T.S. MCNEIL

The world can be a scary place. What better way to deal with this fact than to laugh and enjoy the time we have? So often things come down to a matter of laugh, cry, or die. One person who had definitely taken the first option is the multifaceted creator Aurelio Voltaire Hernandez. Known to…
365 Books in 365 Days – Episode 220 by Annie Walton Doyle

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin “All I’m saying is that trauma doesn’t get you a lifelong get-out-of-jail-free card. It also doesn’t necessarily confer wisdom, or the right to pontificate”… The world of Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss is nothing if not unusual. Living in a bug-infested farmhouse, Greta both makes her money and gets her kicks…
Mycorrhizal Network by Amanda Yskamp

We bought one of those wood signs, with the edgesrustic and singed, naming our property something folksy and fun, “Cabin a real good time,” while withinthe loamy needled ground, under the “nature trail,”(oxymorons R us), a mycorrhizal network connectsthis tree and this, in ways that would topplea metaphor in sheer wonder, with kin recognitionand cross-talk,…