2024
35mm photography
BRUISER Zine 007

“A psychogeographic view through the lens of a cheap camera, giving a realistic look at a country that has been exoticized far too often. Glimpses of flora, concrete and steel show the familiar to the man who is unfamiliar.” - Tully K, Apocalypse Confidential

“We forget the flaneur, the only type of person who can take these images, whose wandering is in union with curiosity. A bewildered stare at a sign in an unknown language may be the act of a tourist, but finding enough merit in its design to commit it to film and share it is not.” - Cole Wheeler, WYXR’s Life on Deck

“These faded images and hazy lights evoke the fleeting nature of travel—moments that feel familiar yet distant, like fragments of a memory shaped as much by films and anime as by lived experience. It’s a reflection of a trip where the lines between the real and the imagined dissolve.” - Sam Levin, @goopcat

2021
prose writing
Intercourse Publishing
limited to 100 copies

Writing from a hardcore fan’s perspective, Mark Plasma dissects and celebrates the ecstatic, violent theater of professional wrestling.

“Revenant”: a lifelong fan charts the rise and fall of an erstwhile icon for anyone who cares to listen.

“A Degenerate Model for Living”: a punk on the edge of burnout falls hard for pro wrestling and finds himself on the way down.

Written & designed by Mark Wadley

Illustrations by KNOX

2023 - present
digital photography

There are others in the labyrinth.

An ongoing photo series exploring mundane—yet alien—urban landscapes, with a focus on geometric form, tension between human development and nature, and narrative implication.

Selections featured by Apocalypse Confidential in their BABEL special presentation.

2018
Short Fiction
Grotesque Materials

Mark Wadley's fiction debut, a collection of linked short stories set in an apocalyptic version of Alabama. Written, designed, and published by Mark himself as his MFA thesis.

The author of the Book of Matthew begins with an exhaustive genealogy of his new prophet-protagonist. It somehow seems fitting that any praise for this book of Mark — that is, Mark Wadley’s haunting and transcendent novella-in-stories, All By Our Lonesome — would begin with a similar list of forebears. Yes, there’s the echo of Brad Watson here, and Barry Hannah, probably some Denis Covington, for good measure. There’s also a reverent nod to James Agee and Carl Carmer. Writers of and for the melancholy American South. But there’s whimsy here too — and magic, and music-of-the-spheres, and metafiction — and therefore, also, something of the Universal. For every echo of Job and the cynic-sage of Ecclesiastes, there’s the moondance of Calvino’s Cosmicomics; there’s Dante’s urge toward a sublime and out-of-this-world kingdom come; there’s the vital, ancient wisdom of Eve, of Esther, and of Wisdom’s Proverbs. Even more exciting for those of us who seek smart new voices for understanding the world we now inhabit in this uneasy meantime, there is the irrefutable truth that Mark Wadley can spin a story that feels just like an old-time prophecy.
- TJ Beitelman, author of John the Revelator

2022 - present
webzine & micropress

Founded in 2022, BRUISER is a webzine and micropress dedicated to publishing new, interesting work in all mediums. Over two years, BRUISER has become a notable, nationally-recognized presence in the alternative literature scene and has branched out into print, with eight zines produced in 2024 alone.

As the founding editor, publisher and designer, Mark is the principle architect of BRUISER's aesthetic and ethic. He selects the work, edits it, lays out the interiors and designs the covers using his own artwork--drawing from found art and public domain imagery--or the occasional piece from a collaborator.

2024
short fiction

A darkly funny short story about a Baltimore theater prank gone awry.

Published November 2024 in scaffold.

Nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

2023
digital photography

a photographic collaboration and conversation with Devin Lunsford.

Published in October 2023 in BRUISER Magazine

2022 - present
poetry
selections featured in Don't Submit & Black Stone/White Stone