the html review is a journal of literature 'made to exist on the web'
Published each spring, the html review features poetry, nonfiction, fiction, graphics, and experimental works that use the web as a medium.
This issue of PHONE TIME includes: a conversation with Maxwell Neely-Cohen about the html review, now on its fourth issue. I also asked him about his project “10,000 Drum Machines.” Plus, some niche internet corners and the usual roundup of internet-y news.
When Maxwell Neely-Cohen and Shelby Wilson first started the html review, which launched its first issue in spring 2022, they thought it might be a one-off. But by the next spring, there was a second issue of the publication, which describes itself as “an annual journal of literature made to exist on the web.”
In issue 02’s letter from the editor, delightfully addressed “Dear web surfer,” Neely-Cohen noted that the response had surpassed expectations. “ … we thought it would be a small experimental project among friends, something only a few people ever saw,” he wrote. “Instead, thousands of you visited, read, and reached out to us.”
The fourth issue of the html review was released this year—in fact, all the issues always come out on the first day of spring—and Neely-Cohen wants to keep at it. “I want to get to 10, and then I want to get to 20 … just keep doing it, and see what happens, sort of through that longevity,” he said.
Living at thehtml.review, the journal intentionally has no social media. Each issue has around 12 to 17 pieces, spanning genres including essays, poetry, and fiction. What they share is their use of the web, often being graphics-based, visual, interactive, and experimental. The layout and design of each issue, done by Wilson, is different: starting from a “clean slate,” Neely-Cohen described.
“It’s all forms of literature that really try to leverage the things the web can do,” he said. “Because a lot of the reading we do is on the web either way. But a lot of it isn’t really thinking about it or designed for it. And so we’re really interested in … what happens when we do that a little more consciously.”
I spoke with Neely-Cohen about starting the html review, its evolution, and whether he still has optimism for the web’s future. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
PHONE TIME: Let’s begin with how the html review started.
MAXWELL NEELY-COHEN: the html review came out of knowing a lot of really talented artists, writers, and coders who were interested in and already creating really amazing work that used the web as a medium. When we started, I had edited for a couple literary magazines, and I thought the literary magazine model for releasing web-based work would be an interesting thing to do.
There had been versions that had done this in whatever very specific niche way, but there wasn’t one that, at least to me, felt broader. I had been part of a cohort at the School for Poetic Computation where I met Shelby Wilson. We do everything in the magazine together. I don’t even remember this, but according to Shelby, I apparently texted her one day and was like, “I bought a domain.”
PHONE TIME: How do you think about putting together each issue?
NEELY-COHEN: I think we really just do it. We put together each issue off of instinct. We don’t have issue themes, but sometimes themes emerge naturally. It’s a mixture of people we directly reach out to and from our open submission window. Some years, we have a lot of really great submissions or pitches that we don’t have room for, so we’ll go back to someone we thought was cool and bring them in.
We really think of each issue as this clean slate, and Shelby does such an incredible job with the issue design each time. People always ask me, “Do you know what Shelby’s gonna do?” And I’m always like, “I have no idea.” So far, they have all felt really distinct.
PHONE TIME: I’m curious as to how your literary background has influenced the html review’s editorial process.
NEELY-COHEN: It’s definitely influenced it a lot. I really treat it as a normal editorial process. Contributors who have never been through that are very surprised how much we’re putting into that side of it, where we’ll have a real conversation about these very tiny details. It’s not in a nitpicky way, just having been through the experience of having good editors who really want the thing you’ve created to be as effective as possible.
“We especially love when the subject matter of a piece has nothing to do with the web or technology, but the medium is merely a means to further the story and poetry. Our editorial process includes text, design, and code,” the html review’s submission guidelines state.
PHONE TIME: the html review intentionally has no social media. Why not?
NEELY-COHEN: We’ve really stayed committed to just having it be a website, that once a year has a new issue that we publish on the same day. We don’t have an email newsletter either. I think it’s helped preserve this magic of it. I think people know instinctively, “Oh, you’re just like weirdos in this corner. And you have no other aspirations than making this thing as good as it can be.”
It finds its way into these corners that we would never expect. I’ve really wondered if part of that is what I would almost call anti-marketing. In this age where everyone’s trying so hard, the fact that we just don’t do it at all—it’s a fascinating thing to see that strategy actually kind of work.
PHONE TIME: Has your approach changed since the first issue in 2022? Is there anything that has surprised you?
NEELY-COHEN: We’ve learned the things that we should be focusing on or that we as editors are best at helping along. Initially, I think we were wilder in our lack of focus, whereas now, I think we understand that there’s a few very specific lanes where we tend to be able to help and represent our contributors really well.
We realized we are best when the work we’re publishing uses the medium, but is not talking about the medium. We still sometimes publish things that have to do with the web and technology. But we’ve taken great care to never publish anything that references the html review or the scene we’re in. We don’t want to be self-referential. We really think it’s better when someone is like, “Oh, I’m going to use the web to write this essay about butterflies,” or whatever.
It’s been extremely international for something that is our fun little creative project. We’ve had contributors from all over the world. That’s been a really lovely surprise, and something that both of us crave more of.
PHONE TIME: I appreciate the html review because it feels like a corner of the web that inspires hope. A lot of stuff I read about the internet’s future can make you feel like, “Oh, why would I even try?” and that just sucks. It’s cool that you and Shelby have carved out this space, especially with the care you give to contributors’ pieces. With editors and publications being so spread thin, that kind of attention can be hard to come by.
I’m wondering—what’s your level of optimism versus pessimism about the web?
NEELY-COHEN: I think it depends a bit. I’m pessimistic about bad actors being able to successfully do anything, and I’m sort of like, “Well, chaos reigns supreme, and we’ll kind of have to see.” But right now, I’m doing a fellowship at the Library Innovation Lab and working on a lot of stuff about web preservation, digital preservation, and how fragile these things all are. At least at the moment, I’m not totally panicking.
Jackie Liu’s interactive browser-based project “i feel so much shame” is part of the html review’s spring 2025 issue. I published my conversation with Liu about it earlier this week.
Some other works from the html review that I especially love:
ASCII Bedroom Memoir—Eileen Ahn, issue 04. “This is an archive of all the bedrooms I have occupied: From my earliest memory to present day,” Ahn writes. “In these spaces, I have shared, crafted, founded, and lived much of my physical days as well as my digital days.”
Paramecium Dinner–Morakana, issue 03. “Welcome to the paramecium dinner. As you wait and observe, you might see the cells feasting on this text.”
Siggy Shop—Reese Oxner, issue 02. “A love letter to online message boards.”
Flight Simulation—Yuzhu Chai, issue 01. “welcome aboard.”
I also asked Neely-Cohen about his “10,000 Drum Machines” project. In 2019, he had sketched out some web-based drum machines but didn’t build them until this year.
“I was trying to come up with a name for a site that could host them all, and the only thing that came into my head was ‘10,000 drum machines,’ even though that wasn’t the point,” he said. “I was like, ‘Alright, I guess I gotta make some more now.’”
He added that he is now making a drum machine every three to five days, and publishing others’ submissions.
“It turns out I’m a much better coder if any element of rave is involved,” he said.
You can submit a drum machine or check out Maxwell Neely-Cohen’s other projects here. You can find Shelby Wilson’s work here.
Niche internet corners
I’m always fascinated by memes recreated in physical formats. I compiled an Instagram post of yogurt bowls made by users on Rednote, meticulously crafted to look like cat memes. So I’ve been enjoying this Instagram account, @jinro_satisfying_art, that has been doing color mixing with Italian brainrot characters.
Halle Berry quoted a post on X from Computer Love Records about her 2000s-era website, “Hallewood.” At the 2017 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Berry said she would be relaunching it as a lifestyle site with an accompanying app. But from some clicking around on the Wayback Machine, it seems the relaunch fizzled out. I wrote about the rise and fall of the celebrity app here.
In 2017, Berry described the site as a way for her fans to get to know her in “a different way than the media was presenting me.” / Via @halleberry and @ComputerLove_ on X 
The Hallewood site included sections for fashion and beauty, personal information, frequently asked questions, contests, links, and a fan club with a shop. / Via the Wayback Machine 
The Hallewood page announcing the relaunch. There don’t seem to be significant subsequent updates, and the site is not currently live. / Via the Wayback Machine
Elsewhere online
A Sea Salt Toffee Flavored Blend from Pinterest and Chamberlain Coffee is the “first co-branded global product Pinterest has released in its 15-year history,” Pinterest wrote in a blog post. The post noted that as a longtime Pinterest fan, Chamberlain used the platform to design the campaign, which has a Pinterest board called “Out at Sea” featuring product photos, behind-the-scenes, and other fishermen-inspired content. There’s also merch: a maritime tote, keychains, pitcher, and cups.
Chamberlain told PS that Pinterest, which she described as the “only space where it’s just imagery, just information,” is the one social media app she continues to actively scroll.
“We uncovered how Meta's AI app was full of accidental public posts that were really personal. It's now trying to fix that.”—Katie Notopoulos, Business Insider
“Tumblr’s content-filtering systems have been falsely flagging posts as ‘mature,’ users blame AI”—Sarah Perez, TechCrunch
See also: “Instagram users complain of mass bans, pointing finger at AI”—Sarah Perez, TechCrunch
“Can Functional Fragrances Actually Enhance Your Mood? I Asked Experts to Weigh In”—Jennifer Hussein, Cosmopolitan. “The fragrance industry is in its self-care era, and the vibes are less date night and more ‘me’ time—hence the influx of perfumes labeled calming, mood-boosting, and energizing,” Hussein writes.
“I watched some of the viral ASMR videos made with AI and I feel more confused than soothed”—Eric Hal Schwartz, TechRadar