They sold at auction Wilde’s cellblock key, the one for C wing in Reading Gaol— Wilde’s name was his cell number: C.3.3. Wilde was convicted of “gross indecency,” got two years hard labor and the treadwheel— they got £15,000 for Wilde’s cellblock key. Wilde and (his lover), Lord Alfred Douglas (“Bosie”), would pick up “rent […]
Stephen Gibson
STEPHEN GIBSON is the author of seven poetry collections: Self-Portrait in a Door-Length Mirror (2017 Miller Williams Prize winner, selected by Billy Collins, University of Arkansas Press), The Garden of Earthly Delights Book of Ghazals (Texas Review Press), Rorschach Art Too (2014 Donald Justice Prize, Story Line Press), Paradise (Miller Williams finalist, University of Arkansas Press), Frescoes (Lost Horse Press book prize), Masaccio’s Expulsion (MARGIE/IntuiT House book prize), and Rorschach Art (Red Hen Press). The poems in Issue 13 Summer 2018 are from a forthcoming collection, Obsessed.
On Visiting Oscar Wilde’s Cell in Reading Prison
Video—Nuremberg Museum
by Stephen Gibson
He watches from a field; he’s there to gloat— the video is from a cattle-car point of view; grinning, the boy draws a finger across his throat. The middle of nowhere—mountains, small, remote; the name of some village no one ever knew— he watches from a field; he’s there to gloat. A […]
A Dovecote at a Medieval Manor House Ruin in Oxfordshire
by Stephen Gibson
Two workers were repairing it the day we visited— one worker passing thatch to one on a ladder; our friend Judy, a photographer, said this was a favorite place for her: the dovecote once bred pigeons and doves for the dinner table: chambers inside—when the manor house was inhabited— filled with squabs and […]
Graffiti at a Medieval Manor House Ruin in Oxfordshire
by Stephen Gibson
There were graffiti, initials, dates carved everywhere, much of it around doorjambs which had no doors; much also around window frames where the air just passed through—there was no more glass, not even shards, anywhere. Alice S. and Robert W. visited before the Great War. They carved their initials, in 1912, with great care. […]
Contributor Bios for Issue 13 Summer 2018
Issue 13 Summer 2018 HANIF ABDURRAQIB is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first full length poetry collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, was released in […]
Dec. 7th, 1941
by Stephen Gibson
She wasn’t sure what happened, hearing the news— she was buying a pack of smokes at the corner (not for herself, she didn’t smoke, for her father). She wasn’t sure what happened, hearing the news: a girlfriend was in Lenox Hill—some car hit her (only later, my mom learned about Honolulu). She wasn’t sure what […]
The Art of Poetry: Summer of Love
by Stephen Gibson
Clo needs to believe she’ll help to end the war and, with those others she lives with in the Haight, that she’ll actually find peace and love forever. She’s run away with a girlfriend—this is before we meet (which turns out, not too soon—or too late): Clo needs to believe she’ll help to end […]
MAYDAY Magazine: Issue 13 Summer 2018
INTERVIEWS Hanif Abdurraqib interviewed by Ruth Awad Joy Is Not Promised to You ESSAYS Joshua Bernstein The Gospel of Dearth Tom Larsen The Nightmare Next Door Jerome Richard Good and Decent People Janette Schafer The Miracle of Ordinary FICTION Eric Barnes Time Space Thomas Jacobs The Death of Z Ignacio Ortiz Monasterio Fighting for His […]
Contributor Bios for Issue 12 Winter 2018
Issue 12 Winter 2018 RUTH AWAD is an award-winning Lebanese-American poet whose debut poetry collection, Set to Music a Wildfire, won the 2016 Michael Waters Poetry Prize from Southern Indiana Review Press. She is the recipient of a 2016 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and her work has appeared in New Republic, The Missouri Review Poem of the Week, Sixth […]
Japanese Tentacle Erotica
by Stephen Gibson
It’s possible to loathe and desire the same thing. What the heart wants isn’t simple. It’s complex. In graphic novels heroines beg for it to sting. It’s possible to loathe and desire the same thing. In storyboards, tentacles surround their necks. What gender do you think is doing the drawing? It’s possible to loathe and […]
