It has been announced that the authors Tao Lin and Toby Litt will serve as prose guest editors for The Mays XX.

Mays editor Andrew Griffin said “We chose Litt and Lin because they’re both committed to promoting as well as writing exactly the kind of new fiction that The Mays exists to promote. Each is committed to pushing the boundaries of literary fiction, and what that term means. They’re doing exactly the work that The Mays wants to encourage, an aim with which they both seem to have a lot of sympathy.” 

The Mays announced at the end of March that musician John Darnielle will serve as poetry guest editor and Sebastiano Barassi from Kettles Yard will guest edit visual arts.

Tao Lin is the author of six books, including the poetry collection you are a little bit happier than i am (2006), the novella Shoplifting from American Apparel (2009), and the novel Richard Yates (2010). His third novel will be published by Vintage in 2013.

Asked how he will approach the role of guest editor, Lin said “I'll be looking for writing that I like. I've generally, recently liked writing that is funny and emotional and more concise than, after reading it, I would've thought it to be.”

Toby Litt, who studied at the University of East Anglia, has written ten novels, including Corpsing (2000), deadkidsongs (2001), and Finding Myself (2003). His latest novel is King Death (2010), published by Penguin. Chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003, Litt now teaches creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London. 

Litt told The Mays that “Getting my first pieces of writing into print, when I was at university, was an incredibly important step towards becoming a writer. I remember that it made me feel I was finding my vocation. I'll be hoping to encourage new writers who are trying to do new things, things I couldn't have anticipated. I like excessive stories, where the beginning doesn't give you any idea of where you'll end up.”

The Mays is an anthology of the best new writing and artwork coming out of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The theme this year is “strangeness".

Sold in bookstores by Varsity Publications and distributed to literary agents around the country, The Mays has brought attention to new writers and artists for twenty years.

Past guest editors of the anthology have included Seamus Heaney, Stephen Fry, Philip Pullman, Ted Hughes and Colm Toibin, as well as Zadie Smith, whose publication in The Mays while studying at Cambridge helped launch her literary career.

Visit mays.varsity.co.uk for more information, or follow @themaysxx on Twitter.