What happens to the work I have previously published with The Minison Project? Will past issues of the minison zine, Sonnet Collection Series, and TMP Magazine still be available online?
Any published work will remain online and available in our archives, regardless of any changes we will make to The Minison Project as a whole.
Is The Minison Project considered defunct for the purpose of re-publishing my work elsewhere?
The Minison Project is not considered defunct as it is rebranding, not shutting down, but the rights to your work reverted back to you after initial publication! Because your work is still available online, it is still considered previously published, and we ask that you credit our magazine (whichever project it was) as the original home for your piece.
Do you have any recommendations for other publications accepting sonnets and similarly structured poetry?
We will still be accepting sonnets, minisons, and form poetry, but we won’t have a dedicated project just for that. We will keep our ear to the ground and make sure that we are including those journals in our monthly newsletters along with any kind of blasts we can throw out on social media about lit spaces that are open and accepting submissions.
Who is behind the transition to Wild Willow Magazine? Will the masthead be the same? Will anyone be taking over The Minison Project?
No one is taking over The Minison Project, the name will still be used in the background of Wild Willow Magazine. The EIC of TMP, Melissa Ashley Hernandez, is behind the transition to Wild Willow, and because the vibes for WWM are similar to TMP, the masthead will remain exactly the same for the foreseeable future.
I have a piece that’s been accepted in The Mini Recipe Book. What are the current plans for publication of that?
A note directly from the EIC:
The Mini Recipe Book has had a hard hand dealt since the moment we opened up submissions. I thank you for your patience in the face of an exorbitant amount of time passing. Now that every academic loose end is tied up for my Masters, I can prioritize and will have more time to dedicate solely to Mini Recipe Book.
There are two separate timelines happening for this project. There’s the one for the writing and visual art, which I am learning a new program to ease TMP/WWM into consistent and reliable printing— that should take us until perhaps October to finalize. Throughout this time, I will be sending drafts to all of you periodically to edit. The other timeline, though, where I work with a photographer to take photos for the book, is up in the air at the moment. I will have to cook/bake and dress every desired dish/good and coordinate with the photographer, and that will take a bit of money that I do not have at the moment. I’m hoping to have a more steady income in about a month, so I will keep you updated with those developments as they happen.
How can I stay up-to-date with Wild Willow Magazine and what the team is up to?
You can follow The Minison Project’s social media platforms, which can be found at the top of this newsletter, as we will continue using the same accounts!
What was The Minison Project?
Tom Snarsky and Jo Ianni are credited with popularizing the form of a minimal sonnet, or “minison”, which is a very small poetic form with only one rule (and as with any poetic form, we use the word “rule” loosely): make a poem with only fourteen letters total. For example: « cobalt sea glass » (6 + 3 + 5 = 14). The sonnet is, of course, a classic and highly respected form in English poetry, and there is precedent for this kind of idea in Seymour Mayne’s word-sonnets, as well as in the work of Noelle Kocot.
When Tom and Jo collaborated on a micro-chapbook using this 14-letter format, they decided to share their work on the site formerly known as Twitter, and it invited other inventive poets to create beautiful art in this wonderfully small space (cf. Michael O’Brien’s collection of minisons). That’s when the two decided that it was time to start a passion project.
It started out as a simple call for minimal sonnets, which led to an informal zine release, and then another, and then they passed the mantle to Melissa Ashley Hernandez. With attention, care, and a fiery passion for sonnets, The Minison Project was alive and ready to go on October 16th, 2020! We were able to see the format blossom into new, related forms, such as the minison coronet mentioned in our Issue #0, and the 14 letter/14 line poem that our EIC is so very fond of.
In our first year, we introduced monthly issues with the minison zine, and a twice-yearly issue for our Sonnet Collection Series (which we then merged into one project under the minison zine name.) In 2021, we introduced our classic literary magazine, TMP Magazine, and two years after our journey began, we introduced our printing press, MiniPress. In October of 2024, a full four years after TMP was born, Melissa and the TMP Team transformed the literary project into Wild Willow Magazine, and we are so grateful you are along for the ride!
Wild Willow Magazine 