The Mays

The Mays The best new poetry, prose, and art from the students of Oxford and Cambridge.

The anthology for new writing & artwork from the universities of Cambridge & Oxford

The Mays, our annual book of the best of new student poetry, short stories, creative photography and art from the Univer...
02/10/2025

The Mays, our annual book of the best of new student poetry, short stories, creative photography and art from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford is recruiting! We are look for a student Editor in Chief (or joint Editors in Chief) for our 33rd edition out in 2026!

Just a quick reminder that the latest edition of The Mays, our book of poetry, short stories, art and creative photograp...
09/09/2025

Just a quick reminder that the latest edition of The Mays, our book of poetry, short stories, art and creative photography by the students of Cambridge University & Oxford University, is available to order from our online shop here: https://shop.varsity.co.uk/shop/

Check out this review of The Mays 33 from our big sister publication Varsity!
26/06/2025

Check out this review of The Mays 33 from our big sister publication Varsity!

Heather Leigh explores the poetic worlds within the recently published student anthology The Mays 33

๐ŸŒŸ EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT ๐ŸŒŸWe are delighted to announce that our launch event will be taking place on the 21st June from 2...
14/06/2025

๐ŸŒŸ EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT ๐ŸŒŸ

We are delighted to announce that our launch event will be taking place on the 21st June from 2-4pm on Pembroke College's beautiful Red Buildings Lawn! This is a chance for writers and contributors to as well as readers of The Mays to meet one another, mingle and celebrate this wonderful anthology together!

There will be readings from student writers, refreshments, a chance to pick up a copy if you haven't already and, most likely, sun! :)

We can't wait to see you there! In the meantime, happy reading ๐Ÿ“–๐Ÿ’™

๐ŸŽจ: Daisy Cooper

We are still so excited that The Mays 33 is out in the world! In anticipation of our book sale today, here's a sneak pee...
20/05/2025

We are still so excited that The Mays 33 is out in the world! In anticipation of our book sale today, here's a sneak peek into the book at Daisy Cooper's beautiful internal art 'A Penny for Your Thoughts' ๐ŸŽจ๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ

Join us for our English Faculty Book Sale (in Cambridge) shortly! We can't wait to see you there, and will be around from 1-4pm ๐Ÿ“–

The Mays 33 is also available at โœจ https://shop.varsity.co.uk/shop/product/mays-thirty-three-2025 โœจ

We're still so excited about The Mays 33 launch, and can't wait for you all to see it in person! Join us this coming Tue...
18/05/2025

We're still so excited about The Mays 33 launch, and can't wait for you all to see it in person! Join us this coming Tuesday for our book sale where we will be selling copies of the anthology by card :)

It'll make a lovely revision break, for those of you who can make it! If you can't, no worries โ€” copies are available anytime at: https://shop.varsity.co.uk/shop/product/mays-thirty-three-2025 !! ๐ŸŒŸ

We are absolutely delighted to reveal that The Mays 33 has ARRIVED! โ˜€๏ธKeep your eyes peeled for our initial book sale - ...
14/05/2025

We are absolutely delighted to reveal that The Mays 33 has ARRIVED! โ˜€๏ธ

Keep your eyes peeled for our initial book sale - which will be announced very soon ๐Ÿ”ฎ๐Ÿ‘€

We can't wait to see you all there!

Pre-orders for The Mays 33 are OPEN - here are some of the reasons you might want to pick up  a copy of the wonderful 33...
27/04/2025

Pre-orders for The Mays 33 are OPEN - here are some of the reasons you might want to pick up a copy of the wonderful 33rd edition of The Mays!

๐ŸŒŸ link to pre-order is available in our bio and at the following link: https://shop.varsity.co.uk/shop/product/mays-thirty-three-2025 ๐ŸŒŸ

๐ŸŽจ by the wonderful Daisy Cooper

We are so thrilled to reveal the beautiful cover of The Mays 33 - illustrated by and with huge thanks to the amazing Jes...
21/04/2025

We are so thrilled to reveal the beautiful cover of The Mays 33 - illustrated by and with huge thanks to the amazing Jessica Leer ๐Ÿ’™

When asked about her inspirations for this year's cover, Jessica responded: "I am so excited for everyone to see this cover. I feel like I put a lot of myself in it: the colours, the dancers and stars all feel like a piece of me that I'm giving to The Mays."

Pre-sales will be opening soon. We hope you are all as excited as we are to read and enjoy all the wonderful student writing and art within this issue of The Mays. Our team has worked so hard on it, and we cannot wait for it to be out in the world with you all! ๐ŸŒŸ

33 years, 33 covers... What will this year's Mays look like? ๐Ÿ‘€๐ŸŒŸ๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ: by the fantastic Daisy Cooper !
20/04/2025

33 years, 33 covers... What will this year's Mays look like? ๐Ÿ‘€๐ŸŒŸ

๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ: by the fantastic Daisy Cooper !

Address

Varsity Publications Ltd, 16 Mill Lane
Cambridge
CB21RX

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+441223337575

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Mays posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Share

Category

Our Story

The Mays, published by Varsity draws together some of the best poetry, prose and visual art that the students of the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford have to offer.

Our 2020 student editor is Zoe Matt-Williams, our guest editors this year are: Philippe Sands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Sands and Oscar Murillo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Murillo_(artist).

Notable guest editors of our books in recent years have included Stephen Fry, Kate Bush, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Patti Smith, Sir Quentin Blake, Rupi Kaur, poet laureate Ted Hughes, Louis de Berniรจres and many, many more! Check out the full list here: https://www.themaysanthology.co.uk/previous-editors/

World famous novelist Zadie Smith was first noticed by literary agents after her short story appeared in the 1997 edition of The Mays.