thehtml.review

What is the html review?

The HTML Review is an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web. Rather than treating the browser as a container for scanned or reprinted text, it publishes work that depends on the medium: poems, essays, folktales, webtoons, multiplayer music systems and small interactive artifacts that would lose something essential if printed on paper. Issue 05, spring 2026, is the current edition, and the archive and about pages hold the back issues.

What actually appears in an issue

The table of contents reads like a curated exhibition rather than a standard literary magazine. A few examples from issue 05:

• Angel in Latency, a poem by Grace Dignazio spoken by a bound creation addressing the reader through the screen.
• carecore, a CSS botany piece by Raphaël Bastide dedicated to caregivers.
• Intersymmetric: Connect, a multiplayer music system by James Bradbury, Rian Treanor and Mark Fell that asks you to unmute your device and join.
• les aventures de mr mister in the land of lines, a webtoon by zeste le reste whose main character is built from CSS.
• Kp'ọjọ kp'ọjọ, a folktale by Omayeli Arenyeka about Itsẹkiri as a language of secrets and, increasingly, of tenderness.
• Banner Highway 01, a series by Richard Lewei Huang and Yufeng Zhao that revives Burma-Shave roadside ad-poems for the information superhighway.

The recurring subjects are memory, language loss, care, surveillance and the odd intimacy of screens — but the through-line is formal. Each piece is built out of the web's own materials: CSS, audio, cursor movement, scrolling, live connection between visitors.

Who it is for

Readers who like contemporary poetry and short prose but are bored by PDF-style literary PDFs will find the most here. So will designers and creative coders who want to see browser-native craft treated as literature rather than as a demo reel. Teachers looking for short, discussable digital works have an obvious use for it, since individual pieces are brief and self-contained.

The trade-off is real: some works need sound, a mouse, or a stable connection, and a few reward patience more than a quick skim. If you read on a phone with muted audio, you will miss part of what several pieces are doing.

A practical next step

Open issue 05 and start with one short piece rather than the whole table of contents — Meanders by Allison Chan or from mine to yours by Queenie Wu are gentle entry points. Read with sound on and a cursor available, then move to the interactive and multiplayer works once you know how the journal handles the screen. If you want context on how the form has developed, the archive is the place to compare earlier issues.

Can I read the current issue 05 online for free?

Yes. Issue 05, spring 2026, is readable in the browser at the journal's own site, the html review. The journal describes itself as an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web, so the works are web-native pieces rather than PDFs or print scans. The issue page lists fifteen pieces, each with a number, title, form label, creator and a short description, and each title is the entry point to the work.

What "reading" involves here

The pieces are not all conventional text. The form labels on the issue page include poem, CSS botany, webtoon, multiplayer music system, interconnected stories, folktale, conversation, artifact of memory, essay, love letter, inner monologues and banner ad archeology. A few examples of what a visitor encounters:

• "Intersymmetric: Connect" by James Bradbury, Rian Treanor and Mark Fell is described as a multiplayer music system, with a note to start audio and unmute your device.
• "carecore" by Raphaël Bastide is CSS botany, described as dedicated to all caregivers.
• "les aventures de mr mister in the land of lines" by zeste le reste is a webtoon whose main character is made of CSS.
• "Banner Highway 01" by Richard Lewei Huang and Yufeng Zhao is a browser-based visual poetry series reimagining Burma-Shave roadside advertisement-poems for the Information Superhighway.
• "Kp'ọjọ kp'ọjọ" by Omayeli Arenyeka is a folktale, with the note that Itsẹkiri was the language of secrets and is becoming the language of tenderness.

Practical notes before you start

Expect to interact rather than scroll passively: some works ask for audio, cursor movement, clicking or sitting with a screen for a while. The pieces that involve sound are the ones most likely to need a desktop or laptop with working speakers or headphones, while text-led works such as the poems and essays read fine on a phone. If a piece feels broken, try a current browser with scripts enabled, since CSS and JavaScript are part of the medium here.

A sensible next step: open the issue page, skim the fifteen one-line descriptions, and pick two that match your mood and device, one text piece and one interactive piece. The archive and about pages are listed alongside the issue if you want to see how earlier issues handled the same web-native approach.

How are the works in the html review different from ebooks or print journals?

The works in the html review are built to run in a browser, not to be read as fixed pages. The journal describes itself as "literature made to exist on the web," and the issue 05 contents show what that means in practice: a poem about an AI bound to its matrix, a "CSS botany" project dedicated to caregivers, a webtoon whose main character is a CSS element, a multiplayer music system, and a piece that asks you to start audio and unmute your device. These are not texts with a web page wrapped around them; the behavior of the page—layout, interaction, sound, code—is part of the work.

What changes for the reader

In a print journal or an ebook, the artifact is stable. You can dog-ear a page, highlight a sentence, or hand your copy to someone else and know they will see the same thing. In a browser-based journal, the reading environment is part of the piece. A work like "Intersymmetric: Connect" expects multiple participants and audio; "Cursor Park" frames itself as a "place of refuge," which reads differently when you are sitting inside it than when you are reading about it. Some pieces may depend on your device, your bandwidth, or your willingness to click and listen.

That also changes how you cite and revisit. A print poem has a page number. A web-native work may have a URL, but its state can depend on interaction, screen size, or time. The trade-off is real: less permanence and portability, more immediacy and range.

A quick comparison

Who gets the most from it

Readers who enjoy electronic literature, net art, and experimental poetry will find the format itself meaningful rather than incidental. Teachers working on digital writing can use individual pieces to show how code and interface carry tone—"carecore" is a clear example, since its subject is caregiving and its method is CSS. If you mainly want to read on a commute, offline, or with a stylus in the margins, a print or ebook journal will serve you better.

A useful next step: open one work that matches your interests—say, the folktale "Kp'ọjọ kp'ọjọ" for narrative or "Singing Light" for atmosphere—and notice what the browser is doing that a printed page could not. If that interaction feels like part of the meaning, the journal's approach is working for you; if it feels like an obstacle, a conventional journal is the better fit. For broader context on web-native literature, the html review is the journal itself, and the Electronic Literature Organization documents the wider field.

What kinds of digital art and literature are featured in issue 05?

Issue 05 gathers work that only makes sense as a web page: poems that address you from inside a screen, essays that scroll like a walk, music you play in a browser with other people, and visual pieces built from CSS rather than images. The through-line is literature and art that uses the web's own materials — code, links, cursors, sound, latency — as its medium.

What the issue contains

• Poetry and inner monologue: “Angel in Latency” by Grace Dignazio speaks as a bounded creation trying to reach you through a display; “Meanders” by Allison Chan draws a map from sea to sky; Queenie Wu’s “from mine to yours” reads as a reminder to walk and let things pass.
• Essays and memory work: Anne Lee Steele’s “Tell umma I’m walking to Baekdusan” maps a landscape on screen across seasons; “Consumables” by Vinh Mai Nguyễn and Coumbah Sidibé turns everyday disposability into an essay; “Afterimages” by Nicci Yin treats memory as an artifact.
• Folk and language: Omayeli Arenyeka’s “Kp’ọjọ kp’ọjọ” considers Itsẹkiri as both the language of secrets and of tenderness; Katarina Dorothea Isaksen’s “Singing Light” links stories during the polar night.
• Web-native form play: Raphaël Bastide’s “carecore” is CSS botany for caregivers; “les aventures de mr mister in the land of lines” is a webtoon whose main character is CSS; Richard Lewei Huang and Yufeng Zhao’s “Banner Highway 01” revives roadside ad-poems as browser-based visual poetry.
• Sound and social space: “Intersymmetric: Connect” by James Bradbury, Rian Treanor and Mark Fell is a multiplayer music system that asks you to unmute; Christopher Shank’s “Cursor Park” offers a place of refuge and a question about sitting next to someone on the internet; Connie Liu’s “Photographic Memory” is a conversation.
• Slow pleasure: Helen Shewolfe Tseng’s “milkfish” is a love letter to persistence, to a fish dating back to the Early Cretaceous, and to pleasures that take time.

How to approach it

Read on a laptop with sound on, and give each piece more than a glance — several depend on interaction, audio or gradual reveal. If you want a starting point, try a short poem first, then a piece with sound or multiplayer elements, so you can tell which mode of web-native work holds your attention. For context on the journal’s broader project, see The HTML Review.

How can I submit my own web-based literature to the html review?

The site itself doesn't publish submission guidelines on the page you're asking about, so the reliable route is to start from the journal's own navigation. the html review lists an Archive and an About section alongside the current issue; the About page is where an annual journal normally states its reading period, editor contacts and what "made to exist on the web" means in practice. Read that page first, then send a short query rather than a finished piece if no window is open.

What "made to exist on the web" implies for your pitch

The issue 05 contents show the range the editors actually publish:

• Poetry and essays that use the browser as a surface — "Angel in Latency" (a poem), "Meanders" (a poem), "Tell umma I'm walking to Baekdusan" (an essay about walking a landscape on a screen).
• Works where code is the material — "carecore" is described as CSS botany; "les aventures de mr mister in the land of lines" is a webtoon whose main character is CSS.
• Interactive and multiplayer pieces — "Cursor Park," a place of refuge, and "Intersymmetric," a multiplayer music system with an audio start prompt.
• Form-driven experiments — "Banner Highway 01," banner-ad archeology reworking roadside advertisement poems.

The practical lesson: a plain PDF or a Word document is unlikely to be the right container. If your piece only works as text on a page, it may not fit; if it breaks, moves, listens, or responds when opened in a browser, it's closer to what this journal exists for.

A concrete next step

Write a one-paragraph description of your piece that names its medium (HTML/CSS/JS, audio, canvas, generative text), its ideal reading situation (desktop, headphones, five uninterrupted minutes), and one sentence on why the web is necessary rather than convenient. Then check the About page for the current reading period and submission address, and send that paragraph as a query before building anything new.

Decision criteria for whether to submit here

For context on how other web-native literary venues frame submissions, Electronic Literature Organization maintains directories of publishers and journals in this space, which can help you judge whether your piece belongs with an annual journal or a rolling online magazine.

Where can I find past issues and the archive of the html review?

Past issues live in the site's own Archive section, reachable from the top navigation of the html review. The current page is issue 05 (spring 2026), and the archive is where earlier annual issues are collected, since the journal publishes once a year.

How to use it

• Start at the html review and open Archive in the header.
• Treat each issue as a numbered set: the pieces on the current page are numbered 01–15, so an archive entry for another year will look similar.
• If you want a specific work rather than a whole issue, note its title and maker — for example "Angel in Latency" by Grace Dignazio, "carecore" by Raphaël Bastide, or "Banner Highway 01" by Richard Lewei Huang and Yufeng Zhao — and look for those names in the archive listing.

Why browse the archive rather than just the latest issue

The journal's premise is literature written to exist on the web, so older issues are not just back catalogue; they are working web pieces that may behave differently as browsers change. Reading an early issue alongside the current one is the most direct way to see how the format has developed.

A practical next step: open the archive in one tab and the current issue in another, then compare one piece from each — say a poem such as "Meanders" by Allison Chan against a more interactive entry like "Intersymmetric: Connect" by James Bradbury, Rian Treanor and Mark Fell. That contrast tells you quickly whether you are there for the writing, the interaction, or both.