prose – TERSE. Journal

365 Books in 365 Days – Episode 167 by Annie Walton Doyle

Death Valley by Melissa Broder “I came to escape a feeling – an attempt that’s already going poorly, because unfortunately I’ve brought myself with me, and I see, as the pink light creeps out to infinity, that I am still the kind of person who makes another person’s coma about me.” There are certain authors…
The History of Rain: A Review By T.S. Mcneil

When is a war not a war, or when does a war really end? Can the impacts ever really be shaken off until every person who remembers it is dead? For Canadian novelist Stephens Gerard Malone, the answer is no, at least if his novel The History of Rain is anything to go by. Written…
Braving the Days: It Was Grace by Jordannah Elizabeth

It began, an hour ago, while I was doing everything I could not to think. I’ve been to the doctors, and when folks believed I slipped away, the psychiatrists said, you’re clairaudient. They were respectful enough to acknowledge it, so when I hear opinions, plans, love and complaints of others, I’m likely attuned. Tonight, I…
Braving the Days: And then there were five by Jordannah Elizabeth

I am the youngest of six of my father’s children. There was a balance that was so precise, it could cause one to think of divine alignment in precedence of considering coincidence; scientifically, there are minimal variables regarding the combination of genders (with respect to nonbinary and trans human beings). Therefore, numbers could minimize the…
365 Books in 365 Days – Episode 110 by Annie Walton Doyle

New Animal by Ella Baxter “‘I think you might be trying to get away from those things, because of your sadness, which is so uncomfortable that it’s almost unbearable—but I promise you, running away from that sadness is like trying to run from your own shadow.’” When New Animal was published, it was salaciously (and,…
And Then The Gray Heaven: A Review by T.S. McNeil

In a culture of increasing representation, which can only be a good thing, one of the aspects of humanity rarely noticed are the truly odd. Not the those who are different because of how they vote or what they like to wear or listen to, but the organic oddballs, who are different in the most…
Meeting Across the Crevasse by Jo Nageswaran Kinnard

I have always been comforted by the space between my fellow human-beings and me, while appreciating what we share in the common ground of our humanity. The idea of losing my individuality in something amorphous is off-putting. However, for a lot of people, “different” is difficult, terrifying, or unacceptable. How do we understand and bridge…
Drawing Blood by T.S. McNeil

Artists can occupy an odd place in culture, both venerated and dismissed, often in equal measure, as both those chronicling and commenting on a moment in time, as well as dreamers away with the fairies. In terms of the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec it was both at the same time. An artist with no…
Storyteller: A Review by T.S. McNeil

The first stories, at least in the Western tradition, were sung. Going back to ancient Greece, long before the written tradition, foundational narrative works such as The Iliad and The Odyssey recited in poem form, often with the accompaniment of a lyre. A bardic tradition carried on well into the 14th century by the troubadour…
Talk Show Star by Pat Dutt

Friday nights Tyler and Minnie would dress up and share a bottle of good red wine as they slow danced to music like, Can’t Live, if Livin’ is Without You! Then Tyler would glue a modest moustache beneath his nose, and don a wig of straight brown hair that hung like a curtain to his…