This is a distress call—orange smoke in the darkness, an upside-down flag at sea.
MAYDAY wants your voice, urgency, and excitement to reveal new ways of knowing and being. We seek the kind of work that can trek out into the cold dark and light a flare for us. We hear the call and offer our response.
First published by New American Press in 2009 and relaunched with an expanded editorial staff in 2020, MAYDAY publishes contemporary poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translations, cultural commentary, and visual art from creators working in English or in translation anywhere in the world.
MAYDAY aims to be a home for marginalized and underrepresented voices, a beacon of plurality, craftsmanship, and literary excellence. We want culture journalism that cultivates authenticity, curiosity, and compassion; we want innovative fiction that trusts the reader; creative nonfiction with an experiential arc; subversive poetry that engages critically with the world; translations that move in the liminal space between borders. We want to be surprised. We want weird stuff.
MAYDAY nominates for The Best of the Net, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize, and the Pushcart Prize.