Jonathan Owen May lives and teaches in Memphis, TN. In 2011, he received an MFA in Poetry from the University of Memphis. In September 2016, he was honored by serving as the inaugural Artist@Work for the Brooks Museum of Art. He enjoys spending time with his cat and a great book.

Books: May’s long-form poem, dance sentences, and a book of short stories, “but queerer things were meant to come”, were published in 2020. In 2023, he released a collection of poems, pdf/weekends. Creative nonfiction and “remixed” poems are the focal points of the poetry and essay collection, “It was impossible to laugh” (2024).

Other work not found online appears in the print journals The Quarter(ly), Rock & Sling, The Maine Review, DASH, Buddy: a lit zine, Anthology of Forests, Third Coast, Sauna Zine, and SAND. May has led poetry workshops and spoken at various conferences since 2012, including the Mid-South Book Festival, The Southern Festival of Books, and the Southern Literary Festival. Reach out to him at owen.may@gmail.com.

Links to poems:

• “On Our Rwandan Refugees: A Memory” — [PANK], Issue 7.07, with Interview
• “On Uncertainty” — Superstition Review, Issue 11
• Three poems — Superstition Review, Issue 12
• Four poems — Shark Reef, Issues 24 and 26
• “Everyday pornography” — Duende, Issue 2
• “On Thirst” — One, Issue 5
• “Lobster” — One, Issue 9
• “Untitled” — Drunk Monkeys
• “Zoo allegory” — P.O.E.T. (Poets Opposing Evil Trump) Anthology, Poetry NI
• “The beautiful room is empty” — TXTOBJX, Summer 2016
• “jockstraps/gunfire” — Glass: A Journal of Poetry special feature (Pulsamos —
  LGBTQ Poets Respond to the Pulse Nightclub Shooting)
• “computer deep dreaming” — SHARKPACK Annual, Issue 3
• Two poems — Winter Tangerine, Mythology of Childhood, Winter 2016
• “triptych” — right hand pointing, Issue 110, April 2017
• “autofill” — one sentence poems, May 2017
• “Party City” — Word Fountain, Issue 13
• “The Night Journey” — Writer’s Resist, Issue 42
• Two poems — Shantih Journal 2.2, Winter 2017
• “untitled” — one sentence poems, June 2018
• wherein use of the word “same” is important — right hand pointing, Issue 125, August 2018
• “The beginning of” and “seven essential household things” — Fearsome Critters, Volume One: 2018
• Two poems, $ Journal, November 2021
• a snail is to a human brain as a soul is wanting to belong—, right hand pointing, Issue 151, April 2023
• memory as surrealist autofiction, Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit, February 2025

Links to other work:

• “Babylon” — Plots With Guns, Fall 2014 (short story)
• “Secrets of the Inner Chamber” — MUSH/MUM, Issue 3 (short story)
• “Animal Mouths” — The Grief Diaries, February 2016
• “Jack Cousteau” — Bear Review, Fall 2016 (short story)
• “Obscene” — mojo, Issue 12 (memoir)
• “On Obedience” — Noble/Gas Qrtly, Issue 204.4