About

tinywords is an international, daily magazine of haiku and micropoetry.

Our goal is to publish excellent poetry whose ambitions and effects far outstrip its small size.

We produce approximately four issues per year, each of which are published in serial form, one poem per day, on the web as well as via e-mail and SMS text message. Our current issue is issue 10.2, which began appearing on July 6, 2010. This issue is edited by d. f. tweney, with assistance from Shae Davidson and John Emil Vincent. The background art (the sunflower) is based on a photograph by Matteo Angelino.

The previous issue, issue 10.1, is available as an elegantly-designed, printed book, for just $9.

From October 2000 until June 2008, tinywords published one original haiku nearly every weekday, totalling over 1,500 haiku by more than 300 contributors, including rank beginners as well as some of the leading lights of the haiku world. We’ve also been publishing haiku on Twitter since early 2007.

After a break, tinywords returned to publication on November 30, 2009, with a broader focus on micropoetry and miniature poetry of all kinds, including but not limited to haiku. We will continue to publish one poem per day, most weekdays.

tinywords is listed in the Haiku Society of America’s 2008 Guide to Haiku Publications, which called it the “largest-circulation journal of haiku in English.”

All contents are, except as noted, copyright (c) by the creators named alongside each work.

Want to know more? Read this longish discussion about tinywords between d. f. tweney and norbert blei.

Fun fact: If you text the word haiku to 41411 you’ll get a random haiku from 2000-2008.

Submissions


tinywords accepts submissions only during specified windows.

tinywords is not currently accepting submissions. Our next window to submit will open in late summer, 2010.

We prefer work that has not been previously published in any literary journal, though we’ll occasionally republish poems that have appeared elsewhere. Appearance on Twitter, personal blogs or online poetry discussion forums is no impediment to acceptance.

We will respond quickly to all submissions, so please no simultaneous submissions.

Copyright: Poets published on tinywords retain copyrights to their work. We ask for nonexclusive permission to publish your work on this website, to distribute it via electronic media including email and SMS, and to republish it in print or online collections. Please do not submit work unless you have the rights to it.

We cannot pay for work published in tinywords.

See the listing for tinywords in Duotrope’s Digest.

Other fine daily poetry sites

Journals We Like

fine publishers whose books you should purchase

support tinywords

Please consider making a contribution to help offset our costs. Your donations can help us stay online and get more people reading haiku! The overwhelming generosity of our readers has covered our annual Web hosting fees for 2006 and 2007, and also helped pay for some much-needed adjustments to our mailing list program in 2007. To all who donated money, THANK YOU.

Click on the button below to make a donation of any amount via PayPal. It’s fast, safe, easy, and you can use a credit card to help keep tinywords going.

The following people have generously supported tinywords with a donation of $1 or more:

Patrons ($50 or more)
Roberta Beary
Ken Morris
Alan Summers
Dirk van Nouhuys
Dean Lawrence
Anonymous (x2)

Supporters ($10-$49)
Jeffrey Winke
Mike Montreuil
You Mon Tsang
Sheyna E. Gifford
Deb McDonald
Suzanne Raymer
Joe Gatto
Scott Richardson
Anonymous (x10)

Friends ($1-$9)
Terrie Leigh Relf
Gerald Hodge
Silenced Press
Anonymous (x9)

trivia

tinywords is published by d. f. tweney. Direct comments or questions to dft at tinywords (dot) com.

This site is powered by WordPress, whose motto is “Code is poetry.” The design is based on a theme by Rob Beschizza. All of the design infelicities and PHP bugs are by d. f. tweney, however. These pages are coming to you from servers maintained by Birdhouse Hosting.

As of 7/4/2010, there are 3,178 subscribers to the tinywords email list.

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

35 Responses

  1. Joy Bennett Says:

    Good luck with your new focus, D.F! We'll be reading!
    Joy
    joybennett.com

  2. dorispearson Says:

    Hurrah! Yaaaaaaaaa Jumping up and down for joy! Hurrah! Can you tell I'm happy…

  3. KarenRV Says:

    I'm not sure how you found my email address, I hadn't heard of tiny words but thank you, I love haiku, and small poems I'll look forward to reading new ones and I'll tell my friends about you.

  4. Founding Editor Says:

    How wonderful! I am ready to read and eager to submit! I will tell my twitter crew about your re-opening.

    Sincerely,

    Raquel, Founding Editor
    Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine

  5. John Stone Says:

    A breath of fresh air…Thank you.

  6. Alan Summers Says:

    It's great to have tinywords back! ;-)

    Alan
    With Words

  7. James Says:

    Big ideas
    and deep emotions –
    Tinywords

  8. Chris Moran Says:

    White sails
    and red roof gables
    long for summer skies.

  9. Chris Moran Says:

    White sails
    and red roof gables
    long for summer skies.

  10. Haiku Society Says:

    I am so happy to see more and more attention being paid to haiku on the Internet (or anywhere for that matter). We need more communities such as this to help spread the word about the simple beauty of haiku.

    haikusociety.com

  11. Stacy Post Says:

    I’m really enjoying the haiku in my inbox. Thank you for bringing it back!

  12. Dick Whyte Says:

    Hi-

    Love your site and love getting daily emails from you. A lovely way to brighten my day. I thought you might be interested to know we are running a daily haiku journal called Haiku News (http://www.wayfarergallery.net/haikunews) and I thought it might be something you would include in your daily poetry sites links. Of course, I totally understand if it isn’t – but I thought you might be interested to know about it.

    Again – thanks for the great daily poetry.

    All the best-
    Dick Whyte

  13. Tatjana Debeljacki Says:

    Black widow
    Black gemin her ring
    Tiding is the black sea

  14. Bill Zimmer (2EmptyChairs) Says:

    What a daily thrill to see tinywords active again. LOVE the new format!

  15. Dan Baker Says:

    HI there,

    I have just subscribed to Tinywords, and am wondering how to submit poetry? I’m very much looking forward to being a member of this site!

  16. d. f. tweney Says:

    How to submit poetry to tinywords: Read our submission guidelines here. http://tinywords.com/about/

  17. Wende DuFlon Says:

    The revamped site is exquisite (photo, font, hues) and it is delightful to find a poem a day to enjoy. Thank you.

  18. Carole Katsantoness Says:

    glad to see you back. when will you accept submissions?

  19. Maggie Says:

    Are you including tanka in tw now? Maggie

  20. Armando H. Corbelle Says:

    the guidelines are there but not the email address for sending submissions. :)

  21. d. f. tweney Says:

    From the text of the page above: The next window to submit will be in late Spring 2010.

  22. d. f. tweney Says:

    As it says above: tinywords is not currently accepting submissions. The next window to submit will be in late Spring 2010.

  23. d. f. tweney Says:

    yes, we have published tanka. Take a look at our archives — here's a link to all the tanka published to date:http://tinywords.com/tag/tanka/

  24. Annabella Says:

    I'm not sure how you found my email address, I hadn't heard of tiny words but thank you, I love haiku, and small poems I'll look forward to reading new ones and I'll tell my friends about you.
    +1

  25. martino Says:

    it’s so hard when it comes to roofing

  26. Martin Mikelberg Says:

    Great site – but not a clue on how to submit a haiku.

    onewe@aeitv.net

  27. carrie lewis Says:

    Martin, I can’t agree more. I don’t have a clue either. Maybe they’ll improve how to submit a poem soon. I have several I’d like to share.

  28. d. f. tweney Says:

    Martin, if you read the copy above, you'll see that we only accept submissions during certain windows. When we do, we'll announce it on the site here, on the mailing list, and on our Twitter account.

  29. d. f. tweney Says:

    As this very page says: "tinywords accepts submissions only during specified windows. tinywords is not currently accepting submissions. Our next window to submit will open in late summer, 2010."

  30. Gary Gach Says:

    some place called Haiku Corner shone a spotlight on you today : http://alturl.com/y2i89

    ( hope this brings a smile )

  31. d. f. tweney Says:

    Thanks for letting us know about that, Gary! Unfortunately I can't view it since it requires a login, and the site has some kind of technical problem that prevents me from creating a new account. Still, it's good to know people are talking about tinywords.

    Good to hear from you, btw!

  32. pull your ex back review Says:

    I liked your article. Your article gives a lot of insight of love break up. I would be interested on reading extra from your side.

  33. Mariana Says:

    How can I submit a short poem here? Thank you.

  34. d. f. tweney Says:

    Mariana, please read what I've written above. We're not currently accepting submissions, as this page says. When we are (soon!), there will be instructions here.

  35. Maximo Fusner Says:

    Finally, I located the information I was searching for. I have been doing research on this subject, and for four days I keep finding web-sites that are supposed to have what I am looking for, only to be discouraged with the lack of what I had to have. I wish I could have located your web-site sooner! I had about 30% of what I needed and your site has that, and the rest of what I need to complete my research. Thank you and keep up the good work!

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