The Minor Bird Collection

The Minor Bird is the official undergraduate literary journal of Chatham University, formerly Pennsylvania College for Women at its initial publication. It was preceded in publication by the university’s prior literary journals, The Sorosis, which ceased publication in 1921, and The Englicode, which ran from September 1925 to May 1928 as part of the student newspaper, The Arrow. As The Englicode ceased, The Pennsylvania College for Women’s Publications Board opted for selections published in The Minor Bird to be published in The Arrow as a creative supplement to the newspaper. For three issues in Spring 1939, The Minor Bird and The Arrow came together to form a hybrid publication called Dart, also colloquially known by the students as Minor Arrow. After this, The Arrow existed solely as a news magazine and The Minor Bird took a publication hiatus until 1949. From 1949 to 1992, The Minor Bird was consistently published without any gaps in publication. The journal, which had once had an even split of literary work and critical work, began to integrate artworks and to broaden its reach beyond the English department. After a gap in publication from 1992 to 2005, The Minor Bird was resuscitated as a self-published venture by the students before regaining its standing within the English department and returning to a professionally published format. From 2014 to 2016, the journal was published exclusively online and was again published as a physical journal in 2017.  The title of The Minor Bird relates to the Robert Frost poem of the same name and the timing of campus visit by Frost on April 16, 1929 as students were preparing the debut issue. The Minor Bird accepts submissions exclusively from the undergraduate student body at Chatham University. The journal typically is composed of an undergraduate editorial board and a faculty advisor.

Note written by Carina Stopenski and Molly tighe