The most recent volume of student creative writing anthology ‘The Mays’ has recently been displayed alongside the most hotly anticipated novel in years, Harper Lee’s ‘Go Set a Watchman’, in Heffers bookshop in Cambridge.

The publication, which showcases what it describes as the best creative work from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, was recently spotted on the front table of the famous bookshop next to Lee's sequel to 'To Kill a Mockingbird', which sold 105,000 copies in its opening day in the UK and was Amazon’s most pre-ordered novel since the final Harry Potter book.

The editor of this year’s anthology, Emily Fitzell, was highly enthusiastic at this recognition.

“It’s great,” she told us. “The artists and writers in the book deserve this kind of exposure.”

She went on to describe the publication as an “important platform for introducing new talent” that provides its writers with the “potential for some form of professional future”.

Student writer Rebekah Miron Clayton said she was “incredibly excited” and “proud” to be featured in such a “bold” anthology.

Another contributor, Henry St Leger, was “grateful” his free verse poem about Grand Theft Auto was “worth” the editors’ time. He praised their open-mindedness and for curating “so much writing that actually feels new”.

Renowned illustrator Sir Quentin Blake guest edited the current volume alongside artist Alison Turnbull. They were chosen to “see how artists who work with visual media could influence the selection process”, Fitzell’s rationale being that visual artists would provide a useful counterpoint to a student editorial team that mostly featured poets.

Both contributed their own work following the year-long selection process, praised by Fitzell as reflecting the “curatorial intent” to “allow art and literature to converge”.

This was particularly important given Fitzell’s focus on altering the anthology’s traditional structure, “collapsing” the categories of poetry, prose and artwork while including “those pieces that demonstrated the fiercest commitment to emotion and intellect”.

‘The Mays’ has been published since 1993 and is known for providing a platform for upcoming artistic talent. Fitzell told Varsity that she hoped “someone presented in this year’s anthology might also return one day as a guest editor”.

It is widely believed that the publication established the career of now internationally acclaimed author Zadie Smith. Smith later quipped when editing the anthology in 2001: “Maybe in a few years this lot will have me out of a job.”

THE MAYS TWENTY THREE is currently available from select bookshops in Cambridge, Oxford and London, as well as The Mays online shop: http://mays.varsity.co.uk/purchase/