Wormwood

Please note that Wormwood is no longer published and we do not sell any back-issues.

Wormwood was a regular paperback journal devoted to discussion of authors, books and themes in the fields of the fantastic, supernatural and decadent in literature. It contains essays, articles, short appreciations, new research and perspectives from new and established writers about acknowledged major authors, lesser-studied writers, and those who are unjustly neglected. Wormwood also featured the columns ‘Camera Obscura’, surveying recently published but overlooked books, ‘Late Reviews’, reappraising titles from the past.

Reviews

'[Wormwood] opens the door to more lost and neglected writers than you can shake a library card at...' Ian McMillan, Yorkshire Post

'...this is certainly where Wormwood’s talents lie - in close readings of obscure texts, informed by detailed knowledge of the authors and their work. By printing the texts themselves alongside masterly interpretations, the reader is invited to do likewise, thereby encouraging new scholarship and iconoclasm.' Dara Downey, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies

'Tartarus Press has just launched a journal, Wormwood, dedicated to fantasy, supernatural and decadent literature". Number One includes an in-depth look at Meyrink, an interview with Muriel Spark and an essay on "The Decadent World View" by Brian Stableford. Among the writers it resurrects is Edgar Magnus Birnstingl, author of a privately printed posthumous volume of stories which "date from the last two years of his life" (he died in 1915 aged 16). Oh dear, this is going to give me even more of a lust for lost books than I already have.' Suzi Feay, Independent on Sunday

'Wormwood 1 is classy, refined and polished, both in content and presentation, and it doesn't seem like a first issue in any way.' Rosemary Pardoe, Ghosts and Scholars

'Wormwood is an excellent magazine and one much needed in Britain where we should be vying with the Americans by presenting more fantasy-related discussion and analysis. This could potentially grow into something even better than the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. If you believe that the best academic work occurs on the cutting edge then take out a subscription to Wormwood and make your contribution.' The Alien Online

'I read Wormwood over the holidays, while sipping a glass of imported absinthe, and found this journal to be a wonderful holiday gift. I don't usually find literary journals worth my time, cover to cover, but Wormwood, like the herb that flavoured my drink, is both bitter and sweet, flavoured with the heady brew of the decadence of yesteryear . . . my interest has been piqued, Wormwood has given me much to think about.' Ron Lewis, All Hallows

'The essays in this first edition bode well for Wormwood's future . . . in all cases I felt a definite urge to leap out of bed (where else would I read about decadence?) and go and get the books under discussion.' David Longhorn, Supernatural Tales

'Wormwood is an excellent magazine.' Jeff Gardiner, Prism (British Fantasy Society)

'Wormwood is . . . about the best 'small lit mag' since Connolly's Horizon or Lehmann's New Writing.' Gabriel Duffy