McSweeney's Issue 72 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern)

Biographical Note:
McSweeney's Quarterly Concern began in 1998 as a literary journal that published only works rejected by other magazines. That rule was soon abandoned, and since then McSweeney's has attracted some of the finest writers in the world, from George Saunders and Lydia Davis, to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and David Foster Wallace. Recent issues have featured work by Tommy Orange, Hanif Abdurraqib, Lisa Taddeo, Mimi Lok, and Lesley Nneka Arimah. At the same time, the journal continues to be a major home for new and unpublished writers; we're committed to publishing exciting fiction regardless of pedigree.


Review Quotes:

"A key barometer of the literary climate."
--The New York Times

"An enduring literary presence."
--Chicago Tribune

"Ever shape-shifting and ambitious, McSweeney's has redefined what a literary institution can be. Their commitment to publishing strong, strange voices and stories from the periphery has always been an inspiration and I'm always excited to see what they'll do next."
--Catherine Lacey, McSweeney's contributor and author of Pew

Inside this three mini-book volume (bedecked with art by printmaker David Ryan), you'll find a new play, The Headliners, by Jeffrey Neuman (produced here in an extended playbill of black and white photos from the Denver world-premiere production along with the play's full text); and experience the hardships and thrills of life on the road as comedian and musician Tim Heidecker guides you through his intimate diary and documentary photos of his "The Two Tims" tour. With your whistle appropriately wetted, settle in for a full festival's worth of literary stars including Ed Park's latest tale of generational differences in family and love; Selena Gambrell Anderson on the intentional wrecking of a rich man's ill-used ship; Jim Shepard's new narrative perspective of Dr. Jekyll and his Mr. Hyde; Caleb Crain's painfully accurate take on the time-honored tradition of hooking up at a writing conference; Lauren Spohrer on the frightening specter of ghost planes and ghost citations, misattributions and appropriations; and somehow still more.

Find all this plus letters considering product demand, the future as an airport terminal, teleportation of orgies to Iowa City, and lingering baby teeth from Dan Poppick, Mina Tavakoli, Vi Khi Nao, and Justin Carder; a excerpt from Eskor David Johnson's Pay As You Go;Brian Robert Moore new translation of Lalla Romano; new work from Erin Somers, Adrian Van Young, Sahar Delijani, and Kevin Moffett; and the winner and runner-up of our inaugural Stephen Dixon Prize: Kristina Ten and Maz Do. Get ready to enrich your soul and live it up in the most introverted way possible, with this jam-packed blast of stunning literary periodical content.

Ever changing, each issue of the quarterly is completely redesigned (there have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head), but always brings you the very best in new literary fiction.