Jeff VanderMeer founded the Ministry of Whimsy in 1984, the name a play on the ironically named ministries in Orwell's famous novel. First focusing on poetry and literary fiction, the Ministry published work by National Book Award winners such as Richard Eberhart, Richard Wilbur, and Carol Muske. In switching to surreal fiction in 1989, the Ministry published Jabberwocky, a magazine that published early short work by Kathe Koja, Steven Sherrill, Mark Rich, and Steve Rasnic Tem. In 1994, the Ministry launched the Leviathan anthology series. The second volume was a finalist for the British Fantasy Award and the third won the World Fantasy Award, while also being a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. Zoran Zivkovic's "The Library" in Leviathan 3 also won a World Fantasy Award. In addition to the anthology series, the Ministry published Stepan Chapman's The Troika, the first indie press book to win the Philip K. Dick Award, and Jeffrey Thomas' Punktown, now considered a cult classic. Books by Rhys Hughes, Zoran Zivkovic, Michael Cisco, Steve Tomasula, and others followed. Now published as an imprint of Wyrm Publishing, the Ministry continues to promote and publish surreal dark fantasy while mixing fantasy and literary mainstream fiction in its anthology series. Its first project as an imprint of Wyrm was Last Drink Bird Head, a charity anthology for literacy.