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The Mays Literary Anthology (or justThe Mays) is an annual anthology of new writing by students from theUniversity of Oxford and theUniversity of Cambridge.[1]
Anthologies of poetry by undergraduates from theUniversity of Oxford and theUniversity of Cambridge were first published in 1913, withCambridge Poets: 1910–1913 andOxford Poetry: 1910–1913 being produced respectively byArthur Quiller-Couch andGilbert Murray.[2] Many years later in 1992, Peter Ho Davies, Adrian Woolfson, and Ron Dimant, who met while working together at the Cambridge University Student Newspaper, Varsity, independently established a totally new publication concept known asThe May Anthology of Poetry andThe May Anthology of Short Stories, originally published as two separate anthologies: one devoted to poetry and the other to prose. The idea came about when the three friends were standing outside Queens College one evening, and realized that they all aspired to publishing books. Once they had resolved to set up the anthologies, Adrian Woolfson pulled in Ian Critchley - who was at the time a student editor on the Oxford University Student Newspaper, Cherwell - as his Oxford co-editor. The nucleus of the Cambridge team, who led the project, was Woolfson's attic room at 5 Harvey Road, where the editorial team would meet weekly to review the submitted materials. In 2003The May Anthologies became a single publication.[3]
Each year, theMays receives hundreds of submissions from students at Oxford and Cambridge.[citation needed] The Editorial Committee (composed of students from both universities) review the submissions.
The Mays is often noted for launching the career of novelistZadie Smith.[4][5] Her work appears in two of the short story editions (1996 and 1997). Literary agencies first took notice of Smith after seeing her story "Mrs. Begum's Son and the Private Tutor" in the 1997 collection. Smith guest edited theMays in 2001. Her quip "maybe in a few years this lot will have me out of a job" has become a catch phrase for the publication.[6]
The Mays is broader in scope than most university literary projects: it is sold in bookstores and by delivery nationwide; it is distributed to every major literary agent; and each year a guest editor — usually a prominent author, poet, or artist — writes an introduction to the anthology.[3] Previous guest editors include:Margaret Drabble andJon Stallworthy (1992),Michael Dibdin andSeamus Heaney (1993),Stephen Fry (1994),Ted Hughes (1995),Penelope Fitzgerald (1996),Christopher Reid andJill Paton Walsh (1997),Sebastian Faulks andJ.H. Prynne (1998),Penelope Lively andJohn Kinsella (1999),Paul Muldoon andLawrence Norfolk (2000),Zadie Smith andMichael Donaghy (2001),Andrew Motion andNick Cave (2002),Ali Smith (2003),Philip Pullman (2004),Robert Macfarlane (2005),Don Paterson andJeanette Winterson (2006),Colm Toibin (2007),Ian Patterson (2008),Patti Smith (2009),Amit Chaudhuri,Tom Raworth (2010),[citation needed],Jarvis Cocker (2011),John Darnielle,Tao Lin,Toby Litt (2012),Michael Frayn,David Harsent,Tom Phillips (2013),John Fuller,Paul Farley,Ben Okri,Prajwal Parajuly,Emma Chichester Clark andAlexander Gilkes (2014),Roger Mcgough andRupi Kaur (2016).[7]
The Mays is associated with Varsity Publications Ltd, which publishesVarsity.[8] The cost of publication is funded in part by donations from various Oxford and Cambridge colleges.
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