Josh Christian: I wanted to start with a broader question to get us into your life and work. I think what struck me about it was that there were so many threads that are happening, and you’re introducing your reader to this whole world of disability that maybe they haven’t even begun to consider, right? […]
Poetry
On the Freedom and Creativity in Messiness: A Conversation with The Cyborg Jillian Weise
Tag, You’re It (Cyborg Sonnet)
by Jillian Weise
#IfYouGetThis #CripTheVote #SendMeADM #DeafTalent #WithTheNameOf #DisabledAndCute #ThePlaceWhere #ActuallyAutistic #WeSatTogether #DisabilityTooWhite #For26Days #AbleismExists #NotUsExactlyBut #AccessIsLove SEE MORE: Interview with Jillian Weise THE CYBORG JILLIAN WEISE is a poet, video artist, and disability rights activist. Cy’s first book, The Amputee’s Guide to Sex, was reissued in a tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface. The Book of Goodbyes won […]
Twasday
by Jillian Weise
The first time I slipped between Tuesday and Wednesday, into a Twasday, I saw Amy. She was wearing her tattoos again. I had not seen her in years. She asked me to help her build a casket. She had the hammer and nails. The saw was lying on the ground next to a plank of […]
Ashley Shew Just Invented the Word Cryborg
by Jillian Weise
How to use it in a sentence. Elon Musk is such a cryborg when we critique neuralink. Don’t be a cryborg about it— just fucking provide access. After Stephen Hawking died all the cryborgs came out like “he’s walking in heaven.” Enough with your cryborg protest. We don’t care that you think the word “ableist” […]
2021 MAYDAY Fiction and Poetry Prize Winners
We’re excited to announce the results of the 2021 MAYDAY Poetry and Fiction Prizes! The winners each received $1,000 and broadsides of their work will be available soon. Submissions for the 2022 prizes will open in the spring. Judges to be announced. 2021 MAYDAY POETRY PRIZE Winner: “Garçon,” by A. Shaikh. Judge: Jacques Rancourt. Finalists […]
WHAT MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME
by Michael Meyerhofer
This poem was selected as a finalist for the 2021 MAYDAY Poetry Prize. The older you get, the less likely someone will want to see you naked. Stretch less. Don’t give into the desire to stroll through walls because it’s a long fall to the earth’s core. Remember that everything puckers out of nothing, […]
The Craft of Knives by José Pedro Leite
(Translated from Portuguese by Richard Simas)
In the middle of winter, I discovered an invincible summer inside me. -Albert Camus (from Part III of “The Invention of Summer”) My idea […]
During the Pandemic, I watch Caddyshack Again and Again
by Christina Olson
This poem was selected as a finalist for the 2021 MAYDAY Poetry Prize. My favorite part is when Danny swings his body down the fire escape, tippy-toes onto the porch railing, throws a leg over the old ten-speed with the handlebars like ram horns, and pedals off to the country club. Eighteen and invincible. Danny […]
Spellbound—The Witch Discovers Magic
by Liz Kay
The first spring lamb was born blind, and before the days grew full long, three women died in their birthing beds-one we buried with her belly still large, the babe stuck tight inside her. Midwife said there must be a witch in our midst, twisting shut the wombs with some black, black magic. She made […]
The Witch Introduces Herself
by Liz Kay
Everyone wants to know about the children, how they are and if they made it out. What does it matter now? Can you see there is no happy here, not ever after all? I, too, was a child once and wrestled my way out. I was one who was not devoured. Look who I am […]
